a INSIDE THIS ISSUE Irish General Elections Ken Livingstone Zircon Project Academic Environment * sa&cE l8Jl/n99(; ...........i"............. niH NEWSPAPER ornil; LONDON S( HO( )I. OF FCONOMJC'S S I U )l N ["S UNION ¦ -1^------------------------~----- ' ............................. TheLSESaysNo But Will the Court Listen? M Unaminous student vote in the L'.G.M. Photo: Sunil Shah Union Affirms Divestment Action by AVINASH PERSAUD Student demonstrations and a possible occupation of Administration buildings are brewing tliis week, as tiie Joint meeting of the Standing Committee and the student representatives of the Court of Governors meet on Tuesday. Last Wednesday the United Student Front on divestment put the final touches to a campaign of possible occupations, press releases and picketing. On Thursday the Students" Union affirmed its support for any action necessary in order to force the administration to divest from South African related firms. The LSE has over 11% of its assets in South Africa related firms. The Student Union has been calling for the LSE to divest from these firms for the past ten years but never before has the student body shown such a degree of organisation and determination. The Students' Union has voted nearly unanimously on countless occasions to support divestment. So far, sixteen societies have put their full support behind the divestment movement. Every day more students are signing up to join in the mass Icatleting, canvassing and petitioning of the Halls and college buildings that will take place on Monday and Tuesday. The strength of the LSE divestment campaign will be revealed by whether there is a large turnout outside the .loint meeting on Tuesday and at the Emergency General Meeting of the Student Union that will be convened afterwards to discuss further action. It is readily agreed amongst the leaders of the divestment campaign that never in the ten year history of divestment campaigns at the LSE has it been so 76% of Academics Support Divestment crucial that there is a significant show of strength on Tuesday. Many within the School are ashamed that when LSE finally decides to divest it will not be the first university to do so. Already over fifty-five U.S. and Canadian universities have divested from South Africa. But the LSE could become the first British university to divest, and in so doing, it could regain the mantle of being Britain's most progressive educational institution. For those who are still uncertain as to supporting the LSE divestment campaign bear in mind the words of the LSE Divestment Report produced in November last year . . . "Apartheid is not just children gunned down by the army in the dusty streets of make shift shanty towns, apartheid is also a silent killer. Every year many thousands of black babies are born dead; in effect murdered by an apartheid regime that denies basic health care to black mothers. South Africa has one of the highest mortality rates in the world. Under apartheid the twenty million blacks have a life expectancy, which at fifty years, is less than that of Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world. And all this occurs in a country so rich in gold and uranium that the Afrikaners can enjoy some of the best hospitals in the world and one of the longest life expectancies." The situation in South Africa is becoming worse. Today, it is estimated by Amnesty International that over 100,000 are imprisoned under the Emergency laws and many of these will be enduring the brutal torture of one of the most barbaric security forces in By JOAO CRAVINHO A massive majority of academic staff are in disagreement with the LSE's continued investment in South Africa. In a poll conducted last week, 76% of the academic staff agreed that the School should divest from companies which employ over 500 people in South Africa. This is the criterion chosen by the Students' Union to identify companies effectively bolstering the apartheid regime, a criterion which is also used by a number of local authorities. Of the remaining academics consulted, 8% were unwilling to pass comment, 9% opted to abstain, and only 7% felt that the School's policy should remain unchanged. The poll was conducted during last Wednesday and Thursday by three students who telephoned academics chosen at random, and the sample took in 51 members of staff The results of the poll are interesting on several levels. The School had been prepared to consider divesting from copa-nies holding over 5% of their assets in South Africa because the unverifiability of this criterion effectively meant that no action was to be taken. Thus, the academics' choice to accept the S.U.'s much more relevant and verifiable criterion shows their real willingness to take action. It is somewhat worrying to note the relatively high incidence of staff members unwilling to take a position, despite assurances of anonymity. Last year the School defended its decision to invite a South African academic on the grounds of academic freedom, and yet many of its own academics feel restricted in what they can say. Clearly, the poll's findings are a confirmation of the overwhelming majority which passed a motion calling for divestment at an Academic Board meeting just over a year ago. The question is whether these staff feel strongly enough to openly manifest their support for the S.U.'s position. The Court of Governors has seven representatives on the Academic Board: Mr. Alford, Mr. Dawson, Professors Diamond, R. Higgins, I.M. Lewis, K. Minogue, and Dr. Richardson. It remains to be seen whether these members of staff will represent the academic body or their own personal views. it is a long time since we had such a broad alliance of staff and students over a specific issue. The question is whether the School can blatantly ignore the opinion of its academics as it has done that of its students. And if so, what on earth is is an educational institution for, if it can so cavalierly turn its back on both students and lecturers? RAG'87: The Money by Stsvros Makris nc Auotber eome anS i Eag '$7 Saa bem one smst ambitioas in the ismjy of ^ tSE. Hie Rag CoHssaW wjrked hard over a tens and a half orgamslng ev«nt$. Tlii^ y&ar, am the Nttrserj? Appeal and the Sowtb AfrteaaSdKHajrship Af>p&^L This target was The whole show was Idcked off in a very cncouriiging wa.y two minated the airwaves for four days, raisia| thus e^ven t«ore money and :g^viag a chance and an cXease for wild, •unprcdietable behaviour. The Pirates ruled and Imperial College was blamed for it. Tb$ Qu^Hob Time organised oe Monday, Ist Fefcruary, attracted enough people to raise £15{| and provide thetn with en-tertaitiment of & different sort. Is fact, a couple of the guest leakers hiive been invited by the Debating Society to reappear. Hhe Rag Review was unfortu-oately cancelled due fo the refusal of the LSE Film Society to give up the Old Theatre for a" night on Tuesday, 17th Feb. In its piacc a :Peer Festival was held which raised approximately £250. Additionally, the profits fronj the Three Tuns cJub from Ail-Day-Wednesday, the 18th and Saturday, the 21st (the Rag Ball) will be donated to She Rag appeasl. Pub Crawls are expected to raise £300. One of the most events organised was fee Iviulti-cultural Food Fan. T^s was an event sponsored by STA at which most ethnic and cultiir^f societies put on a showcase of tbdr kd^e-uous traditional foods^ tnc Greek inouss»k& from the Hellenic society sold oat fet, while the Italian stall was surrounded by guistronomic enthusiasts for the dutation of Jhe evening. Note- :hy cuisines were also presented by the Afro- Caribbean Society cmd the Pakistani So^'iety, "s^htle the Germaas provideo a'n Photo: Mark Moore SEE PAGE 5 United Student Front on Divestment meeting last week extensive variety of Salams. Ti;e 'Americans had sotne of tfte , Ajppie pie ever tasted ia the LSE, ¦ wfeJe the tikraiaian stall refreshed the crowds wtii tbc hot-.te$t Ukranian home-njade vodica ever consumed. Awards for pre-'sentation were given, and the Jewish stall won top piite. \ The other very suco^ftjl fcvem • was" the street collee^oa orgs-ni.-edon t'riday !.>th February ."in ' ^^eality, it was an assault hy LSE ' crack, teams on the iissuspecting 2 NEWS THE BEAVER, ISSUE 259, FEBRUARY 23, 1987 BEAVER The Court Must Make an Historic Decision It is no longer accurate to speak of "the School's" investments in South African-related companies. The overwhelming majority of LSE's students and academic staff are opposed to such investments. If these two groups between them do not represent most of the corporate entity that we would call "the School", who does? It is the Court of Governors which decides the LSE's investments policy. This assembly contains a few student representatives, a few teachers, a few members of the Connaught House Bureaucracy and scores of dignitaries variously related or unrelated to the School. Is it right that this groups should lock the LSE into such a base relationship as that of Shell and GEC in directly aiding the Pretoria regime to upgrade its repressive apparatus? Do we who have to be associated in such an unusually vile policy have no say in the matter? Many among the Court of Governors are not linked primarily to the LSE. The staff and students, however, are. The reputation of the School will reflect on our own. It is for this reason that the student body has decided to voice its protest at the LSE's investments policy and possibly go to the lengths of occupying the administration building until the Court changes this policy. The academic staff support them in the protest and hopefully in the occupation as well. Occupation means that we are no longer prepared to accept the normal functioning of the School if it continues to partake in the profits derived from the apartheid system. Those who participate in the occupation (if it takes place) are to be lauded, for in their political consciousness and social committment, they would be following the best traditions of the LSE. The LSE, more than any other institution, should lead the way in taking a firm stand against apartheid. As a school focused on the social sciences, it is we above all who should be able to break through propaganda and habitual truths to see social exploitation as it really is. As a multi- racial and multi-cultural community, we have a particular abhorrence to any form of racial or cultural oppression. The LSE must categorically reject the type of bloodstained and tyrannical regime that reigns in Soweto, Alexandra and Crossroads. It is already too late for the LSE to be among the first in the international community to speak out and take action against the apartheid regime, but must we really be the last? The notion of the Court of Governors trying to painting an acceptable face on the South African regime is both absurd and revolting. The Court of Governors, whatever compromises it feels it has to make to help the LSE survive in the "real world" of Thatcher's Britain must ensure that its primary loyalties are to the LSE - to the values that underlie the School and to the deepest convictions of the School community. The LSE must regain its leading role as a social and educational institution. It must do its historic task in breaking new ground and becoming the first British university to divest all funds from the apartheid regime. AIDS and Homosexual Rights Dear Editor: In last week's Beaver Brian Boyd attempted to relieve us of our ignorance regarding AIDS; not only did he fail - he entirely missed the point. AIDS is not a "gay plague" as the Tory backwoodsmen and religious bigots would believe. But it does concentrate itself within the four high risk groups (97% of cases in Britain) and particularly with the group gay men (88% of cases). AIDS also seems likely to stay confined within these groups and not to become a "plague", as evidenced by figures from the U.S. To say that AIDS is a threat to everyone is to avoid the fact that it is concentrated within the gay community, and that public perception of it is as a "gay disease". The government has been very successful in making AIDS seem like a threat to all of us (note the stunningly neutral adverts), and consequently people's fear is directed in anger at the homosexual community (including lesbians!) - the perceived source of the disease. The response to the AIDS panic must be to defend gay and lesbian rights; yet this has not occured to the left in Britain. Retrenchment of Tory morality threatens the working class as a whole but the left does not have the politics to defend it either. Witness the soft left echoing the establishment's "safe sex" campaign (the "safest" sex is that that monogomous heterosexual cou-¦ .pies havQ!) and their pathetic J' idealisation of the condom. The hard left can only see more Tory stinginess in health service provi-sign, afraid to bring up the issue of gay and lesbian rights. (Note Paul Foot's out of hand rejection of an attack upon gay rights in "Socialist Worker".) Nico Macdonald Revolutionary Communist Society Dear Editor: 1 would like to draw to the attention of the reader that there is a gross shortage of ladies toilets in the LSE. I now realise why women have been strangely absent from the history of mankind (sic). While history was being made we were desperately trying to find a public convenience. While realising that the fact that we cannot urinate while standing up probably means we are unfit to be leaders of anything, I would suggest that the Race has been biased from the start by depriving us of places in which to do what we all must, even if we do it slower. Yours with gritted teeth, B. Manly Dear Editor: Mr. Bexon's statement at the union meeting last Thursday that "The British police force are the best in the world" is indicative not only of his egocentrism but also of his utter lack of imagination. The experiences of the white middle-class mainland British male with the police force are hardly representative of the experiences of the population at large. To persons like Mr. Bexon the police are the defenders of his life, liberty but most of all, his property. Mr. Bexon and his cronies on the rabid right of the political spectrum and the UGM would "like to ignore the existence of N. Ireland where relations between the police force and the minority nationalist community are clearly antagonistic. To the Catholics in N, Ireland as for the blacks in Britain the police force do not represent the benevolent defenders of law and order. As for any woman who has been the victim of a sexual assault the police themselves are often part of the problem as they perceive the victim more often than not as being the cause of the crime. Yours sincerely Ruth Robinson Does SWSS know all the Answers? Dear Editor: Nic Cicutti's "fraternal" compassion of my political beliefs with those of the ideologies of the New Right — Scruton and Cox -confirm what 1 have long been saying about the lack of real debate in politics at LSE. For far too long, there has been some sort of tacit agreement on the non-SWSS left not to show divisions, not to argue in public, and not to expose SWSS for what they are. Sure enough, when I stood up to oppose what I still hold to be an opportunist attempt to elbow their way into the debate on lesbian and gay liberation at this Spring's NUS Conference, 1 get accused of sectarianisrh and of not wanting to fight the society which institutionally oppresses lesbians and gay men. As far as-SWSS is concerned, anyone who does not believe in the primary necessity of building their centralist party as the working class front to lead us into revolution is sectarian - at least if they say so in public. The truth is that the charge of sectarianism rests firsm-ly on SWSS's own shoulders; repeatedly, year after year, SWSS has opposed the demands of women in the student movement for autonomy, because they know best what is right for women -"women are a working class issue." They have consistently ignored the demands of the other liberation campaigns-the lesbian and gay campaign, of Black and Jewish students - because they know best what is right for all oppressed groups; it's a "working class issue," all the responsibility of "new rulers," and come the revolution . . . (of course, it's not men who oppress women, heterosexuals who by their blatent or unthinking behaviour oppress lesbians and gay men, or white gentiles with racist or anti-semitic attitudes and beliefs who oppress Black and Jewish people). In international politics it's the same; SWSS knows best exactly how every liberation struggle should be conducted -from South Africa and Namibia to Palestine and Nicaragua, SWSS have got the answers. Never mind what those actually on the frontline think or what or whether that frontline be Greenham Common, Railton Rd, or the squatter camps in Southern Africa. The liberation movements within the student movement, and in the world at large, have no ;uck with SWSS's attempts to define their oppression for them; it's about time SWSS stopped trying to do so. In strugge, Sasha Roseneil Dear Editors: If, as Roy Jenkins suggests in his interview with "The Beaver" on 9 February 1987, the Conservative and Labour parties are the "Ugly Sisters" of British politics, one rather wonders what he is trying to tell us about the Social Democratic Party. By analogy, Mr. Jenkins' party is pulled by a team of mice, driven by a rat, and ultimately condemned to revert to a pumpkin at midnight, even as its leaders' glamourous ball gowns revert to the rags in which they started. However, it is unlikely, in my opinion, that the Handsome Prince will then slip a glass slipper onto Doctor Death's foot and ask him to his palace to form a government, and still more unlikely that they will live happily ever after. Sincerely, Peter F. Dawson No Comparison Dear Editor: Recently Avinash Persaud wrote "The only difference between what is happening in South Africa' today and what happened to the Jewish people earlier (Nazi Germany) is that Black people are dying." There is a common misconception at LSE that all unpleasant elements of Society may be compared with Nazi Germany. Dur-mg the height of the Wapping dispute. News International was equated with a swastika on the t-shirts and badges of many members of the harder left. It is time that this cheapening and diminution of the Nazi era was exposed. Rupert Murdoch is a greedy, selfish and ruthless capitalist (it may also be argued that the printers are selfish Luddites). President Botha claims to be a reformer. Whether he is or not is irrelevant. He is prepared to imprison or murder all those who oppose his system of government. A system that denies the majority equal rights, but that will tolerate their existence if they remain politically subservient. Adolph Hitler is not remotely comparable to either of these men. The issue in Nazi Germany was not how hard the Jews should be leaned on if they dared demand equal rights. It was simply this. How quickly and cheaply could they all be murdered? If a Black man wishes to leave S. Africa, Botha is happy, his concern is with the maintenance of white supremity. The Jews, in the main, were not allowed to leave Germany - and those that were had nowhere to go - they were simply murdered because of their actual existence. In South Africa your political activities will determine your future, in Nazi Germany the faith of your Grandmother was sufficient to seal it. We all deplore South Africa, yet the ideology behind it, and that that was behind the Third Reich is essentially different. The black man is neccessary to the South African State; his repression is equally crucial. The Jews in Germany had no place except the gas chamber. 1 do not know how many have been murdered in the 40 years since institutional apartheid was founded, maybe 1(),0(X)? In Germany 6 million died in less than 10 years. Harsh repression does not equal genocide. This letter is not an apology for the South African Constitution. It is, I imagine, the most detestable state in existence today. However, in comparing it to Nazi Germany, or indeed the latter to Rupert Murdoch, one is displaying a wanton ignorance of history. The world is not black and white, there are various degrees of evil. The evil of the Third Reich in its aims, practices and achievements is incomparable with anything in history, never mind a dispute between capitalists and socialists. If we Jews must forgive, as indeed we must, then let no man/woman forget, or indeed be deceived by political hijackers. Jonathan Putsman Anthea Dear Beaver: Anthea Burton was correct in her criticisms of charity in general, and Rag Week in particular. Capitalism is a diseased system. Like many diseases it has some nasty symptoms - such as famines, oppression in South Africa and the lack of resources available to the mentally disabled. There have always been two approaches to these problems. The first is the revolutionary approach - get rid of the disease and the symptoms will follow. The second approach involves ignoring the disease and desperately trying to alleviate the symptoms. A telling example of this second approach was during the Irish famines of the nineteenth century. Absentee landlords in England were charging extortionate rents to the Irish peasants, who had to sell their harvests to pay them. This resulted in millions of Irish peasants starving or emigrating, despite the fact that enough was being grown to easily feed the population. Some charitable members of the English landowning class sent food to Ireland to try to relieve the starvation. For every boat of charity entering Dublin Harbour, three boats left carrying exports to England. Most of those people who were vigorously upholding Rag Week and opposing Anthea are great supporters of capitalism - Liberals and Tories alike. Most of those sending food to Ireland were receiving much more from Ireland in rents. There is nothing wrong with alleviating the symptoms of capitalism if you are also trying to cure the disease. If you are not, it is merely perverse. Anthea was right to speak out. Yours fraternally, Gerard MacMahon Executive Editor: Paul Klebnikov Managing Editor: Andy Blakcman News Editors: Brian Boyd, Nick Moreno Features Editors: Alexander Crawford Societies Editor: Stavros V.S. Makris Arts Editors: Ann Henry, Dougal Hare Sports Editor: Hendrik Meesman Photography Editor: Sivan Lewin. Sunil Shah Copy Editor: Ann Henry Staft:Nico Macdonald, Johanna Eigen, Paul Wood. Sunil Shah, Julian Ozanne, Aaron Chassy, Nic Cicutti, Kazuko Hirao, Laurie Haworth, Greg Lane, Ross Broadstock, Elisabeth Botsford, James Reeves, Richard Ford, Marita O'Brien, Mark Moore, Judith Conlon, Kate Meyrick, Fiona Chester, Mark Guest, Giorgio Meszaros. Special Thanks to: Judith and Loren for typing. Marita for helping to produce the issue. Kazuko and Laurie for layout. Other contributors as credited. Typeset by: Clerkenwell Graphics, 13 Vandy .St., London EC2 and Solar Graphics, 2a Tabernacle St., London EC2 Printed by: Eastway Offset, Cambridge Heath, London E9 Published by: The Students' Union ofThe London School of Economics and Political Science, East Building, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. Tel. (01)405-7686 Ext. 2870 THE BEAVER. ISSUE 259. FEBRUARY 23. 1987 COLLEGE SCENE 3 At the Union Pluno: Sunil Shah by Malcolm Lowe It is ironic, is it not. that it takes a period of cold weather, and reports of people taking their clothes off to warm up the Union meeting. The long-running saga of offensive Rag events returned centre-stage this week with indignant talcs of a slave auction at Carr Saunders Hall. As is the case with most of these set-piece UGM debates, the real clinching arguments got lost in the rush to make points of information. Yes, Catherine, it may well be offensive on grounds of sexism or racism for people to strip off their clothing in a slave auction. But surely the real offence against good taste must be that one of the strippers was Nigel Kilby. Anyone who experienced the GBH of the eyesight occasioned by this loathesome character parading around Houghton Street in a bikini can only agree. And all of this was a Report! Yes, the resurrection of LSE politics was going great guns, to quote an answer to last Friday's Guardian quick crossword. Pete Wilcock warned us that the unenlightened idiots who persist in defacing Gay Society notices will be "severely dealth with". And quite right too. This week's guest striker, pretending to be a part of Pete's job, was from TASS, which is the closest the Union Movement has got to a corporate raider. It appears that they have fallen victim to a real raider, the shape of BTR. The good comrades, apparently, had been busy making artificial limbs ( ... no, don't laugh, it's not funny . . . ), when along came BTR who, liking it so much, bought the company, and proceeded to lay off workers and also to demand compulsory overtime. Unsurprisingly the workers objected on grounds of logic if nothing else and held a strike ballot. Despite this being well within the confines of "Tory Union Laws" they got sacked for it. Being in dispute, they have not received P45's and thereby no UB40's either. The buckets were passed around. Another Exec member earned himself double detention, and an anonymous reference in this column, for bad language and grammar. To cap it all. he had the temerity to do somebody else's report. This gentleman apparently thinks "the government is wank". He was also screaming "fucking not, Anthea". What he is not, we failed to hear however. But on to the agenda! Yes, there actually was an agenda with motions on it this week! And it required prioritisations to get any of It discussed! Despite all of this, much of it was run-of- the-mill. Phil "Get off your arses" Evans wants us all to lobby the School's Standing Committee on Tuesday 26th, to try to get it to stop investing in South Africa. Be there or be selfish. The Executive are going to hold hands to help Soviet Jewry. (Well, that's what the motion said). It appears they are going to join a demo to link the Soviet and Israeli embassies to lobby for emigration rights. Again, it sounds worthy. SWSS want NUS to be "more vigorous" in opposing loans as a replacement for grants. They failed to suggest how. Jog around the demo perhaps? Suggestions on a postcard c/o Beaver. According to Liz "Tea Cosy" Wheatley this is not a pipe-dream. Cigarette or cigar, maybe? This, however, was the only highlight in an otherwise very boring essay masquerading as a speech. But all of this went straight over the head of former- poet, Ron Beadle. Having decided, so he said, not to go into the politics of it, he got stranded between left and right in their mutual, if incompatible, loathing of the NUS Executive. But the prize for this week's bust-up goes to a good old-fashioned bit of copper-bashing. Our beloved Gen Sec quite rightly objected to the Police being under a different law to the rest of us. They shoot someone, they get told not to do it again; anybody else shoots someone, they get nicked. This much went down alright with all elements in the meeting to the Left of Attila the Hun. even if the "we've-got-the-best-police-force-in- the-world-so-there" brigade demurred. But the Union agreed with Rory that "self-defence" against the Police was probably a bit dodgy. Shades of vigilantes and the B- Specials here, and the majority ran along, and decided not to be so naughty. On the subject of said O'Dris-coll, he's currently hopping about the place with a suspicious limp. He claims that he fell over whilst sober. This claim is almost as ludicrous as his frantic plea to Helena "Can I have the microphone back" Catt to "Hold on a minute, I need to think of something to say." Two points here: Firstly, have you ever met a silent Rory? But Secondly, and more importantly. why didn't Helena seize the chance for all of us, and move onto next business? All Students! You are called upon to DEMONSTRATE your opposition to apartheid and the LSE's investments in South Africa Tuesday afternoon outside the Main Building and Connaught House Racial Harassment By BRIAN BOYD and PETE WILCOCK An article by Hugo Young in last week's "Guardian" (12th February) addressed the issue of overseas students in British universities and stated that their biggest fear of coming to this country was not the exorbitant price of tuition fees but rather their perceived fear of racial harassment. General Secretary, Peter Wilcock, and Executive Post-Grad officer, Hazel Smith, are raising this issue with the School and are calling for an appointment of a full-time Race Relations officer. They are at pains to point out that this is not an issue which seeks to be divisive between the Union and the School, and both have acknowledged the work already done by the School. At the moment there is no systematic monitoring of racial harassment of overseas students. And no system exists as such to report these attacks. Hazel Smith has pointed out that polytechnics, under the 1966 Local Government Act. Section 11, employ workers in this area who are 75% funded by the Home office. This does ^not cover universities, and in 'Ms. Smith's opinion, it should. In a cosmopolitan institution like the LSE, ensuring the safety of the many diverse components of the campus is going to be fraugt with difficulties. When most of these students jlive outside campus and outside campus accomodation, these difficulties increase dramatically. For too long, however, these facts have been used an an excuse for inaction. A new development now suggests that this may change. It is important that these steps be built upon by both the School and the Students Union. Good work is being done, but we must not rest on our laurels. The tendency for elitist institutions like universities is to assume that nothing as horrific as racial harrasment can possibly occur within our ivory tower. That this is an everyday occurence is all the more foreign to that mentality. A concerted effort is required to overcome this impediment. There is still more to be done. Update on International Women's 'Week By NICOLA HILL The International Women's Week starts on the 2nd March. The first even at the LSE is a talk from Wilmet Brown, a black woman involved in peace movements. She works for "City Limits" and is coming to talk about Black Women and the Peace Movement. On Tuesday lunchtime, Jan Stockdale, the LSE women's adviser, will be speaking about sexual harassment. For a preview of this speech read the leaflet she has released this week on the issue. "Women and the Media" is the contentious topic to be discussed during Wednesday lunchtime. Examples of the stereotypical and sexist representation of women will illustrate this discussion. On Thursday there will be an exhibition outside the Old Theatre on women and apartheid. This forms part of a two hour rally from 3-5 pm on apartheid. Speakers will mclude a South African scholarship student, Amanda Kwadi, and others from ANC and SWA-PO. As a finale there will be a party on Friday from 7 pm - 11 pm. There will be an all women's band and sister culture's disco. This will be for women only whereas the other events will be open to both men and women. Details about the time and place of these events will be on posters and in next week's "Beaver", so watch this space. i_i»H New Editors at The Beaver By Brian Boyd Monday last (Feb. 16th) saw The Beaver elections. The editorial posts change each February for the following twelve months. The only contested post was that of Executive Editor. The candidates for this post were Nick Moreno, Alex Crawford and Sivan Lewin, who were running jointly, and Stavros Makris. The election was won by Alex Crawford and Sivan Lewin, who will run the paper under a dual executive editorship. Alex was The Beaver's Features Editor and Sivan was one of the Photography Editors. Andy Blakeman takes the post of Managing Editor. All the other editorial posts remain the same, except Chris Philipsborn taking over the vacant Features Editor post and Dougal Hare, ex-Music Editor now becomes Arts Editor in conjunction with present Arts Editor, Ann Henry. Sunil Shah also becomes Photography Editor. Outgoing Executive Editor, Paul Klebnikov, who has been running the show since last March, had this to say of his departure: "I think this collective has done a good job raising the standard of the paper and in reaching out to new groups of students. A student newspaper is From left to riglit: Alex Crawford, Andy Blakeman, Sivan Lewin crucial to the school community both as a source of information and as it reflects the values of the school community. I hope that the new editorial team will be successful and ambitious in their" vision of what The Beaver should be." The present collective would like to thank Paul Klebnikov for his time, effort and commitment as Executive Editor. Remember that The Beaver is only as strong as its contributors. At the risk of belabouring the point, we urge students to come along to the collective meetings in E205 every Monday at 5pm. THE BEAVER, ISSUE 259, FEBRUARY 23, 1987 4 >•••••« •••••••< »•••••••< »••••< COLLEGE SCENE >••••••< • ••••••< >••••••• >••••< >•••••••< Societies Corner by Stavros Makris On Tuesday 24th February, the Court of Governors will meet to discuss the divestment issue. The next two or three weeks will be crucial for the divestment campaign. All societies supporting divestment are urged to attend the United Student Front on Divestment on Wednesday 25th February in the Vera Anstey Room, the Old Building. The Black Women's Group presents Diane Abbott, who is the first prospective black woman candidate for Hackney, on "Black Women and Politics" in the Women's Room at noon Monday 23rd February. The Women's Group is meeting on Tuesday 24th February at l-2pm. The purpose of the meeting is to complete the exhibition on "Women and the Media" and to finahse the details for International Women's Week. The Malaysia-Singapore Society presents the Annual Variety Snow and International Food Festival in the Old Theatre, A85 and A86, the Old Building, on Saturday, 28th February. The Variety Show starts at 7.30, and the Dinner, at 8.45. This year's programme includes: cultural dances from the far- east and China, musical solos from talented musicians and vocalists, sketches, comedy, fashion show, and a lucky draw (air tickets to France and book vouchers). The Dinner is made up of well over forty dishes from China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, ^Scotland, Italy, Cyprus, India, Pakistan, West Indies and lots more . . . In a way a preview of the shape and taste of things to come was given on Tuesday 17th February at the Rag Multi-Cultural Food Fayre. All major ethnic and cultural societies were present in an effort to outdo each other in attracting the starving public and win the prize of the best stall. As it turned out, the Hellenic Society's moussaka ran out before most of the other societies had time to set up — though the Greeks had provided for well over one hundred people. The second close favourite proved to be the Italian stall where people lined forever for a chance for the delicious pasta. However, the War of the Stalls was to. be decided by the STA representative — who sponsored the event - not on the grounds of popularity but rather on high-tech presentation. So the English stall came third (I did not know the English had a cuisine to be proud of — and if they do, surely it is not cucumber sandwiches), the American stall, with its delicious apple pie took a well-deserved second place, while the first place prize of two air tickets went to the Jewish society's stall. A stall that most by-passed but was revisited time after time by the writer of this column was that of Ukraine. I have to admit that I did not taste the dishes, but the home-made Ukrainian vodka Also on Tuesday 17th February, spectators arrived at the Debating Society to hear a debate on "The legitimacy of political assassination" and to ratify the society's new constitu- tion drafl;ed by Peter F. Dawson. However, this did not prove as easy as he had expected. He faced a number of incisive quotations from among others Jonathan Putsman, and when it came to the vote, the constitution was rejected by the meeting. Ron Beadle, the acting Chairman, proposed the election of a new Chairman in order to bring in another constitution. This was confirmed. Following two nominations, Paul Wood was voted new Chairman. The new acting Committee is composed as follows: Secretary, Peter Dawson; Treasurer, Justin Jones; and joint Publicity Officers Amit and Brendon. At the end of the meeting Dawson confirmed that the new appointment was "constitutionally impeccable" and Wood announced his intention to hand over the society to some first years "fairly soon". The Jewish society invites all to a speech given by Mr. Ian Mikardo MP (Labour) on the Middle East question at 1pm on Tuesday 24th February in S017. The Wine Society invites you to taste an assortment of fine international Rieslings on Thursday 26th February in the Graham Wallis Room from 5.30pm to 7.00pm. The Hellenic Society would like to express its sincerest best wishes for a quick recovery to Nikos Dimoulas (ex- Treasurer) who has been the unfortunate victim of a freak accident. His absence of ten days had been noticed with worry, and his reappearance at the Greek Table was welcomed with great applause. Rumours concerning the LSE Drama Society's new production have been verified. Its next play is, in fact, opening tonight, Monday 23rd, and runs until Wednesday 25th February. The hilarious comedy, "Outside Edge" by Richard Harris, is directed by Richard Ford. Finally, people are still welcome to join here and abroad the events organised by EGEE. The EGEE London conference "Air Transport in Europe" will be held at the LSE and it will run from Tuesday 3rd March to Friday 6th. The opening reception will be hosted by Professor Kncher; others to appear during the week are; the Minister for Aviation, the Opposition Spokesman on Aviation, Mr. Lipman, the Executive Director of IFAPA, and Professor B. Cheng (UCL). Carr-Saunders Hall Repori Silence descended on Carr-Saundcrs this week, partially due to the fact that Lucy's vocal chords were inactive and Ross was taking a sabbatical in Wales. However, ail was not quiet on the Saunders front: Rob and Jose should have known better than to organise a disco on Friday the Thirteenth, but they coped admirably. Nigel Kilby (fully clothed for a change) thought his luck was in when he spotted a man in the Gents with a red handbag. However, it turned out to be one of the Saunders' tea-leaves, gallantly arrested by the lads at the door. Kilby was last seen heading for the bar. However, the bar staff kept the spirits flowing with Nana and her amazing performing skirt, Henry (was he working behind the bar or under it?), and Navin whose boxer shorts performed their usual function of keeping his' ankles warm. The George Best award for sobriety went jointly to our treasurer, Angela "Comatose" Jones, and Carim the prospective merchant banker (we kid you not!). However, a late bid for the title was put in by Neil Cornelius, who after several abortive attempts to get his records played, decided to belly flop onto the turntable and play himself. It turned out to be a week of unanswered questions: Will El Presidente establish a Kelvinish dictatorship from his presidential suite, or will he be assassinated by members of his irate committee? Could a coup d'etat take olac? courtesy of the slave auctions.' Passfield Hall Report Highlights of the Week: U.S. Troops Invade East Berlin Soviets Open Full-Scale Nuclear War Nuclear Winter Now Envelopes Entire World And ... Kev Storey Gives up Pints! It's true. Kev "The Whole" Storey bet Eddie £10 that he would not drink another pint this term. A shocked Tony "Fascist" Guinness was later heard to express his opinion: "What a dicksplash!" Upon comparison of beer bellies, the following conclusions were reached: 1) Mark Trillo is expecting twins, not a single offspring. 2) Kev is on target for four, at least. Rumours that Mark is jogging and dieting are, I'm afraid, true. Paul Wood is at present in Morocco, catching AIDS off camels. "They're not that bad, Markie." A few notes on slaves. Bert, their duties do not include being sprayed with water at two in the morning! (How's Bobby?) Ben, wear your best suit for the Passfield Boy consortium. Rumours that Matt is to buy Bert's slave have little logic (need he?). As you read this, you will know the p•••••• I • •••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••• »•••••••••••••••••••••« • ••••••••••••••••••••• »•••••••••••••••••••••« • ••••••••••••••••••••• 5 tU' LS£ By JIJ, Last week, as if you didn't know, was Rag Week, and as usual anyone who had a good time was a racist, sexist bigot. Fear of this label was presumably why Peter Wilcock couldn't be bothered to show up to the Street Collection - Peter, I'm told, has a back problem ... he can't get it off the bed in the morning. A great pity, too, as Peter was a very keen and willing collector last year, but of course, he was only a candidate for Sabbatical then. However, while this year's Rag Mag was 'passed' suitable for free-thinkers' consumption, the Slave Auctions held in halls were another thing. Passfield's went well, raising over £600, but then came Carr-Saunders. It started out quite well, Laura Matthews did what everyone should at Rag Week, and forgot politics and had some fun. Sadly however, the event degenerated into what was akin to a Roman Polanski film set, with Oliver Reed as leading man. The cause of it all was the delicious and pouting Nigel Kilby who for an extortionate £25 stripped off and was sold - the week before at Passfield I picked him up for a more realistic £4.50! After that, all hell broke loose as the bar became a hot, steamy, sleazy Soho club and sweaty human flesh wobbled and dangled in front of the slobbering audience. Disgusting that all this should have happened, disgusting that people can be so base and depraved, disgusting that an entrance fee wasn't charged. One final point to ponder, why was twice as much paid to buy clothed Passfield residents? Be fair, they don't all look like Jonathan King!! Moving on to an even more sordid affair .. . Sabbatical elections. Nick "Is he or Isn't he" Randall may run after all - one week working for the TUC enough, comrade? As yet, though, nothing is clear; meanwhile, perhaps the Admissions Office could raise the admittance quota by 3 for next year's freshers. A maximum of 2 DD's or 4 UCCA points is required, and anyone with at least a CSE Grade 4 at Maths will not be allowed to be Senior Treasurer. News of these new 1st year vacancies should be sent to all public and comprehensive schools, Job Centres, borstals and asylums. The employer is an Equal Opportunities Employer and desperate. After many scotches bought, I have to plug the Drama Soc.'s latest play "Inside Edge". Creative, witty and funny could all (at a push) describe this play. Go see it! - Take a friend! All proceeds go to the usual charities. Finally on a thespian note . . . Martin, will you ever return the cases of wine? Last Tuesday also saw the annual Debating Society Dinner. On the menu was Gonorrhea, sadly absent due to an appointment at the you-know-where, but this didn't stop Master of Ceremonies Jonathan Putsman carving-up a real treat. Peter Dawson, no stranger to putsches, looked on amazed as V.D. and his hench-woman were ousted. And V.D. thought penicillin was hard to swallow! P.S. Peter Dawson has a piano with several wires missing. P.P.S. This Saturday . . . Celebrate the Engagement of Weather prophet. Bring your own bucket. Vox Pop TheB.L.P.E.S What the Students Think By BRIAN BOYD and MARK GUEST The B.L.P.E.S. has a very good reputation. It is becommg an increasing point of focus for students as exam time roils near. Is its reputation deserved and how well does it fulfill students' needs? "The Beaver" asked for your opinion. Matt Sakkas said that the library "was good and contains everything I need, but there is a problem as regards taking out books and journals." He though that "the Teaching Collection was too small, and the photocopying facilities are terrible." But he found the staff to be very helpful. Ying Goh thought that the library was "pretty good, but the Teaching collection is limited." She added that "it gets very overcrowded and noisy, and a lot of the books mentioned in the lectures go out quickly." She thought that there should be "a few more copies of popular books and a few more tables and chairs." ..... Houghton Street Harry Photo: Fernando Paul Manna thought the library was "very good and very well equipped", but "there should be more terminals for looking up books." He found the staff to be "very good, but there should be something done about the noise." Karen Nicholson said that "the Teaching Collection is pathetic for Law students; it has nothing. You have to be there at 9.30 in order to get anything." She prefers to study in Senate House but does find the basement of the library a good place to study." Emmanuel Terezskis said that "I like it; it's very warm and comfortable, but yoy can't always find the books you want." He thought the opening hours were O.K. but would like to see more copies of the books. Jules G'Riordan said "I haven't been in the library all term, and when I do have to study, I go to Senate House." About the library, he said, "I don't like anything about it, and it's too noisy as people are always talking to each other." Nicola Hill said that the library "wasn't that brilliant for psychology books, but it's a good place to work in." She said that "quite often the books you want aren't there." She suggested putting the classification numbers on the reading lists. Union Affirms Action FROM PAGE 1 the world. According to the USF, asking the LSE to disassociate itself from such barbarism and to divest from apartheid should not be much to ask of an institution that once took pride in its enlightened traditions. , The student demands to be presented in a paper by Avinash Persaud at the Joint meeting on Tuesday are as follows: 1) The School calls upon an independent and reputable organisation to regularly investigate the South African involvement of LSE investments. 2)The School must give all members of the School access to any information regarding the South African involvement of its investments. 3)The School must divest within two months from all those companies that have more than 500 employees in South Africa. 4)The School must divest from those companies that, irrespective of the scale of their activity in South Africa are breaking EEC, Commonwealth arid OPEC sanctions on the sale of oil and military equipment to South Africa. 5)There must be a student observer on the Investments Committee to verify that they are carrying out the above demands in good faith. Rag '87 FROM PAGE 1 commuters in the City. A staggering £4,968.87 was collected in just one morning and evening rush-hour. This is three times as much as the previous record set by Rag '86. All in all, though. Rag '87 has been almost timid and quiet within the LSE campus. The money raised reflects the dedication of the organisers and the willingness of some of the student body to pledge money while under the influence of alchohol or pursua-sive tactics by those canvassing. It remains to be seen whether all pledges will be honoured. As we go to press, the amounts raised at the flosebery Disco on Friday 20th and at the Rag Ball on Saturday 21st are not yet known. However, it is hoped that this money, together with what is raised for the sponsored parachute drops, plus all the rest pledged, will total up to something close to the original target of £11,000. Many had said it could not be done. Many had said LSE students do not care. Rag "87 has proved that good organisation and hard campaigning can make most of tomorrow's Yuppies pav up today. THE BEAVER, ISSUE 259, FEBRUARY 23, 1987 . ........................................................¦¦ M Hi| ¦ ¦% ............. • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Hi BB AS III Ww , • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••?••••••••• I ¦ I ^0 IV WW Question Time Last Monday a distinguished panel - Jeffrey Bernard, Polly Toynbee, Hazel Smith, and John Walters - were assembled in the Old Theatre to answer students' questions and raise money for the various Rag charities. They were asked, first of all, to describe their typical day so that the audience could get a fuller picture of them. Jeffrey Bernard started: "A typical day is waking at 5.30 or 6.00 with a tremendous amount of angst, guilt and remorse and a very unpleasant mouth. Then it's making a cup of tea, lying in bed, and smoking twenty cigarettes and coughing for about three quarters of an hour, wondering what the hell to do, how to raise the ammunition for the day's self-indulgcnce - like lunch and a few drinks.. Then 1 write whatever crap I've got to write. My deadline is opening time - 11.00." Jeffrey Bernard writes the "Spectator's" Low Life column in which he chronicles his life in and around the pubs of Soho, his involvement in the horse racing world, and his problems with women. He used to write "Colonel Mad" for "Private Typical day Eye" but was replaced as "Major Bonkers" after having a row with Richard Ingrams. He often writes "On Women" for "Punch" and regularly contributes to the "Literary Review." He used to take bets, but has given that up. "I drift into Soho to the Coach and Horses where I meet lunatics like Tom Baker, the man who used to be Dr. Who, my friend here Conan Nicholas who knows more about racing than anyone else in England, or Francis Bacon or Michael Elfick, or various layabouts; actors, actresses, or what have you. After that, 1 go to the Groucho Club and talk to extremely boring publishers and literary agents. I have a few more drinks and have daft conversations with them, in which 1 pretend I've seen "Last Year in Marienbad" which 1 haven't and pretend that I've read Proust, which I haven't, and then after that ... I don't really remember much at all." Polly Toynbee did not start quite so early, and could remember how her day ended. "I wake up at 7.00, worry about my two-year- old, get my school-age children off to school by 8.00 and then sit down and think what the hell to write for my next week's column on the "Guardian' Women's Page." She has been with the Guardian since 1977, and before that was the editor of the "Washington Monthly." She has won the Pakenham award for journalism and the British Press award, and is author of several books such as "The Way We Live Now" and "A Working Life." "l rack my brains and get hold of the newspapers and all the following Sundays to get at subjects that somebody else won't cover. I go into the Guardian and look at the mail, read the abusive letters, the ones from the religious nuts telling me the wrath of God will fall upon me shortly. Quite often I go to meetings of the SDP national committee [in 1983 she fought Lewisham East for the SDP] then I'll go home and make tea for the children - it's a very typical working woman's life in that you're doing two or even three jobs at once." Hazel Smith was a bit worried that details of her typical day would be used against her in a Union meeting. But told us of her negotiations with the Director on the Race and Racial Harrass-mcnts procedures. She is the postgraduate Student Officer at the LSE. During the afternoon she was usually "working in the library to get my distinction so that I can get a grant to carry on in this place and not have to face real life for another few years." Hazel was a Labour member of Lambeth Council and has been surcharged. She is also the Labour Parliamentary prospective Candidate for Ruislip North and in the evenings is "often working for a Labour victory in my constituency which has a mere 18,000 Tory majority". Like Jeffrey Bernard John Walters woke up with a "birdcage mouth" but was not so much oppressed by angst as by "'ANKs - the result of being the producer of the Andy Kershaw show, who is obsessed by people making records who pretend to be cowboys and arc called HANK. Also we get people coming over from Finland to ask us what we do on Radio 1, which is a real pain in the arse." He has been working in Radio for more than 20 years and at the moment also produces the John Peel show, as well as having a guest spot on the Janis Long show. He used to have his own show. "Usually my job involves me sitting in my office while a great many people like your good selves, you know the way young people do today, make menacing and demanding phone calls, all the sentences of which finish "YEAH?" - so sometimes I pick up the phone and just go [sugary, sweet receptionist's voice] "Radio L" They ask if I'm here and 1 say "no, he's in a meeting', but usually 1 come and say [normal voice] "John Walters." and they say "is that John Walters?' So its very trying. Sometimes I'm invited onto things like the Robert Kilroy-Silk show to speak as a man of opinion, rather like this thing today. Next the panel were asked whether they would buy a used car from: a) Neil Kinnock; b) the two Davids; c)Mrs. Thatcher. Jeffrey Bernard "had voted Labour all his life" and, like most of the panel, thought he could trust Neil Kinnock. None of the panel would buy one from Mrs. Thatcher - Polly Toynbee because she thought that "with her Free Market philosophy she would try to swing something on the buyer" and John Walters "in case her son had had to go in it." Polly Toyn-bec told us that she would buy one from David Steel as he was Would you buy a used car from... ?" an expert on used cars. "And used policies." chipped in Hazel, who went on to say that the problem with an Alliance car would be that "you wouldn't know which way it was going at any one time." A questioner from the floor asked if members of the older generation should set a good example by not smoking and drinking, especially in public. Jeffrey Bernard thought that "nobody had the right to tell me not to smoke and drink," and that his doing so didn't do anyone else any harm. "But you do - we breathe in your smoke," spoke up Martin Flatters from the back. Jeffrey Bernard paused to think and said very slowly, "Your words are breathed in by my earhole." He thought that "the issue of second-hand smoke is greatly exaggerated" and that the only thing which would result from his drinking was the possibility that "very late at night -well, not all that late depending on what time I start, I could be By PAUL WOOD very rude to you - and that's called 'Home Truths', We have a session of that every day in the Coach and Horses." Polly Toynbee said she tried not to smoke in public or indeed at all, but still had not managed to give up. She told us that "more women smoke in relation to men. There is a feminist theory that this is because we are such an underclass that we need something to support ourselves, but I think this is rather spurious." John Walters admitted that smoking and drinking were unhealthy but "really, you have to Smoke and drink in public? do something between womb and tomb. Although, if you do observe us older people being totally incapable and sick all over your shoes, then it might serve as a warning to you." Hazel Smith, at least, was pure, as what she saw in the Three Tuns was "enough to put you off for life." We paused here to send out for a double vodka for Jeffrey Bernard, who's own supplies had run out, and then asked Polly Toynbee if Cyn had Sinned [Cynthia Payne] - "I don't think that she did, in that the prostitutes she was running were free agents, but 1 do think that the law should be very strict in dealing with the pimps who terrorise prostitutes. Women should be free to do what they like themselves, but they should be free from pressure and oppression and people exploiting them, but I don't think that Madam Cyn was that kind of a madam. But in Did Cyn sin?" the countries that do have legalised prostitution or red-light districts it makes prostitutes adjuncts of the State who can be harassed by the police and forced into medical examinations which become oppressive and a kind of harrassment." Jeffrey Bernard spoke soulful-ly: "I think she's one of the most moving, wonderful women, a very, very wonderful person. Nutcase militant feminists, I s'pose, would accuse me of having been in four brothels in my life because I've been married four times. Having hung around Soho for years and travelled abroad I certainly know more about prostitutes than women who haven't been prostitutes know about it, and there are very, very reluctant prostitutes. What was the question?" "Did Cyn sin?" "No. I just think that she had a very jolly time. The police are absolute arseholes wasting their time and public money. If a prostitute doesn't mind being screwed and everyone leaves the house happier after their wretched tea parties and whippings -what the hell does it matter? No, it's not immoral. She's a raunchy, smashing woman. I like the way she says that she's bored with sex because, after all, sex is bloody hard work when you're fifty - and also hard to come by. Madam Cyn was one of Hazel's ex-constituents and she thought that "the only people who can be blamed for this court case were the men for whom she was providing the services." She vvent on to say that "anyone who has travelled in the Third World to places like the Philippines or Mexico will have seen the dreadful sight of child prostitutes trying to make money to supplement their families' income. So as in this country, it's done to provide an easy source of money to women who can't find sources of income elsewhere. I don't think it should be criminalised, but the people who get the benefit of this are the men who are seeking the services and that's where we should be directing our attentions." Jeffrey Bernard objected that "Mrs. Cynthia Payne and child prostitution have nothing to do with each other - it's chalk and cheese. We weren't discussing the Philippines or Angola, we were discussing Streatham - and if someone wanted the leg over in Streatham, good luck to them." Next came the de rigeur AIDS question "Is the government campaign too little, too late?" Hazel Smith pointed out that the campaign was taking place at the same time as cuts were being made in the AIDS research budget. John Walters agreed but had to hark back to the days when he "was a lad" as nowadays, so far as sex is concerned, he was something of an "innocent bystander." What he did dislike was how AIDS was getting to be "another form of light entertainment" and recounted how he was asked onto a show called "How AIDS is going to affect the music business" to talk about the sort of records we'll be listening to because of AIDS. Polly Toynbee thought the answer was quite definitely Yes, and pointed to the ineptitude of the advertising campaign which she thought was not explicit enough. She didn't know the right way to get the message across, but thought "it sure as hell isn't with a tombstone and an iceberg." Jeffrey Bernard didn't spend a lot of time thinking about AIDS, "there is something far worse you can get from going to bed with people," he continued, "and that is bloody insanity." If you don't want to catch AIDS stop going to bed with people . . . There are alternatives . . . There's the British Museum, country walks ..." He did have the clap once when he was 19 but turned from this to a consideration of the "Guardian" Women's Page: "Things like that 'Guardian', and Women's pages - it strikes me that there's nothing more remarkable about being a woman than a man - why they go on about women . . . and children, I mean ... a guide rule is never talk to anyone under 21 because they're always daft. The whole thing of AIDS is being taken far too seriously - the human race is AIDS going to die out anyway. Perhaps the better alternative to AIDS would be an immediate holocaust - preferably after closing time. Polly Toynbee wished to defend the Guardian Women's Page. "A lot of people, including feminists, ask us if we're being patronising to have a women's page - 'are women not expected to read the rest of the paper,' they ask. That's not it at all. Newspapers are controlled by men, for men so things that concern women only come up every six months or so. I look forward to the day when we won't have special pages anymore but until you have women taking their proper place in society and reflecting this in newspapers you have to make special provisions and will have to do so until men change and change the power structure." Jeffrey Bernard disagreed. "To go back to this thing about why women think they're unique and need pages devoted to them. Do you realise that I'm sitting here in a clapped-out body which has died about six times and I'm supposed to be handsome, powerful, rich, successful, in control - you think it's easy being a man?" Poiiy Toynbee answered "It's what society does to women, discriminating against them and forcing them into a certain role so that women earn only 60% of what men earn." Ross Broadstock piped up from the back, asking "Would the panel like to be a different sex?" Jeffrey Bernard said he'd "very, very much like to be a woman -the kind of nice woman who would live with me and put up with all the crap. A woman's life can be tremendous fun - in spite of the fact that they can't play bloody Cricket." "They can." (Polly Toynbee) "But the only doubt I have is that I can imagine the type of woman I'd be. I'd have ladders in my stockings, my mascara would always be running, and I'd turn up very early to meet someone who wasn't worthwhile meeting." John Walters didn't want to change but "not wanting to seem like a Fascist or anything", wondered why there were no women jugglers. Hazel Smith was also glad to be the sex she is and always looked forward to women's meetings "where you don't have to put up with most of the crap you put up with all of your lire." She thought that because of the problems women have to face, they tend to be nicer, stronger, tougher, and better company. Polly Toynbee agreed. The final question was "whose voice from the past would you most like to hear?" Jeffrey Bernard said "I'd like to hear Lord Byron chatting up some woman before the 'Guardian' was ever invented." John Walters wanted to hear the voice of Lord Reith, and Hazel Smith wanted to conjure up a voice from the future - Neil Kinnock in his future General Election triumph. Polly Toynbee wanted to meet God, because she was "entirely sure he doesn't exist. But I would like to know what He had in mind." (He??) CAPSCAN Ltd Part time work, on Computer terminals Good Pay in a Pleasant atmosphere flexible hours Contact Lynda on 828-2355 Assets House 17 Elverton St LONDONSW1P2QG THE BEAVER. ISSUE 259. FEBRUARY 23. 1987 • ••••••••••••••»•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••**************** • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••*< FEATURES ««»•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••« «*••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 7 The LSE's Vanished Community In the first of a series of articles on the evolution of the LSE since the war, Paul Klebnikov examines the changed sense of community at the LSE. The LSH during its golden age in the 1940s and '5()s stood out not only for the prominence of individual personalities such as Laski, Robbins, and Popper, but also for its reputation as a very vigourous intellectual community. Located in one of the great capitals of the world and containing an unusually high proportion of graduate students and foreign students, the LSE had (and still has) certain definitive advantages that set it off from other universities. Above all, however, the School had one other important advantage at the time, which has since been lost: an extraordinarily tight sense of community. The LSE forty years ago was much smaller, but just as ugly and just as crowded. Yet, according to most accounts, the place was somehow both cosy and very exciting. A type of cafe society prevailed, and the important issues in both philosophy and contemporary politics were always in the air. The School community was characterised by a dynamic Senior Common Room, very close bonds between teachers and students, and a very active intellectual and social life within the student body. Those who have experienced the LSE both at that time and now point to the decline in the sense of community on the one hand and the degree of public debate on the other. For academic staff it is predictably the character of the Senior Common Room that springs to mind first in any discussion on the school community. Mostly as a result of the LSE's dramatic growth since 1945, the Senior Common Room has ceased to be as effective an arena for public debate as it was in the past. Professor Myint (Economics) remembers how, in the 1940s, all the staff used to sit down and eat together at two long tables in the Senior Common Room. This has since become, according to Myint. "Victoria Station Common Room". Professor Baxter (Accounting) adds; "People no longer congregate in the Senior Common Room. All the staff used to sit together. You could meet people from different departments and there was a lot of public debate on all kinds of topics." Amongst those academics who had a chance to know the environment for three or four decades, there is fairly wide agreement on this point. "The Common Room life is not as good" is one of the first comments made concerning the changes that have taken place at the LSE. an effect on the relationship of students to their teachers. According to Professor Myint: "Students don't use their professors as teachers, but as bureaucrats writing them recommendations. Classes consist of just shuffling around papers -there is one paper which is labelled "Essay", which goes into the In tray, and another paper which is called "Recommendation" which goes into the Out tray. But there is no meeting of minds." This new, unenthusiastic and purely careerist student frame of mind is reflected in the decline in attendance of all kinds of meetings, talks, and seminars not directly related to the degree. This is a development that has been noticed by many staff members who remember the consistently packed auditoriums for lectures and outside speakers in the 1950s. A development which is harder to measure, but which has been noticed with disappointment by a I i If the teaching community seems to have suffered a decline in interaction and debate, the same appears to be true for the student body. Whilst students are working just as hard, if not harder, their interest in their academic fields appears to be on the wane. Professor Morishima (Economics), who has been here since 1970, believes that the quality of undergraduate students is not as good now as it was then. " Students are very keen on getting their degree", claims Morishima, " while pure academic interest is declining". Whatever the extent of this decline, this is bound to have had I'hoto; hcriiando surprisingly wide range of students (see "The Beaver" No. 255) is the current paucity of serious intellectual discussion amongst students themselves. Michael Banks (International Relations) believes that this is related to a change in philosophical values among the students, a fading away of the vision of the LSE's founders that knowledge must be linked to a concept of social progress. Discussion is more likely to take place on the philosophical issues of the social sciences, such as freedom, progress and morality, but the emphasis nowadays is on the specialised and technical sides of the social sciences. Professor MacRae (Sociology) feels that this is due more to the hardening of political and cultural stereotypes. The LSE used to be famous as a melting pot of nationalities, but now MacRae sees more "clumping" of students of different origins. Similarly, political discussion has given way to ideology. As Professor Cohen (Sociology) remembers, "When 1 was a student, I was a member of the Aristotelian Society. to which the famous philosophers of the day used to come and debate with each other. There were also many little groups of undergraduates and graduates meeting in the houses of people living near the School to discuss topics in philosophy and the social sciences." Famous philosophers? They hardly abound in the LSE these days, or indeed in Britain as a whole, but the cosy, smoke-filled gatherings discussing philosophy seem an integral part of life at a good university. It is a pity that they are not a part of ours. An important factor encouraging the LSE's community spirit of the 1950s was the fact that the School still took in evening students. On the one hand, these il students, according to Baxter, were often the most capablc, mature and dedicated. On the other hand, the existence of evening classes meant that the School had o be open later in the evening. MacRae recounts: "With evening classes, there was time afterwards to eat, drink, relax and chat. Graduate students used to sit around until about 10 at night with their friends and wives." How different this seems from today, when The Cafe closes at 4.30, the cafeteria at 7.00, and the Library at 9.15. For many students it must seem as if there is' only time for a quick bite to eat before rushing off home. The lack of evening classes, and consequently the relatively sparse attendance at tea or dinner time has had a substantial effect on the atmosphere of the Senior Common Room. Staff really only have the more hectic lunch hour to meet their colleagues. The existence of an evening life at LSE in the 1950s also meant that there was a demand for student evening entertainment. Photo; Sivan environment of the LSE in giving it its character. Specifically, the lack of places to relax, talk and have a drink is sorely evident. The Brunch Bowl, in one professor's words resembles "a cross between a McDonalds in Omaha, Nebraska and an airport. The Three Tuns and, until recently, Florries, is .so seedy that it isn"t frequented by most of the students. let alone Staff. Only The Cafe strives for some kind of a widely acceptable social atmosphere. but, alas, it closes at 4.30. One of the special joys of university life is a Library open until 2.00 am. and the opportunity for a quick escape with friends for a cup of coffee. Finally, the way the .social sciences have developed since the 1940s has had a profound effect on the character of the School. In the 1940s, the School was not even divided up into departments. Even in the 1950s, the Director, Carr-Saunders, apparently argued that the School was not divided into separate departments, but was simply one community of scholars devoted to the social sciences. Both the visual and the performing arts were very much more prominent. One of the most famous instances of this was when three students, Ron Moody, Bernard Levin and Fenella Fielding, ran a hugely successful cabaret in the Old Theatre. Low property values used to mean that a large proportion of students lived near the School. Now both students and staff are scattered all over the city, while the increase in home entertainment has meant that they look less to the School community for entertainment. The recently built Halls of Residence have had an especially strong effect in draining off students during dinner time and at the evenings. The result is that after 6.00 pm, the LSE often resembles Kingsway on a Sunday - grey and windswept. One should not underestimate the influence of the structural Since then, many departments, for instance Economics, have increasingly channelled their vision into the highly technical and applied aspects of their disciplines. Many economists, such as Myint, feel that it is a pity that Economics has become so specialised that there is hardly any demand for a course like History of Economic Thought. "Economics is not a science, but a discipline," Myint argues. The specialisation, and increasing technicality of the social scien-:es has had obvious repercussions for the School community. Cross-fertilisation between disciplines, which has made the LSE such a dynamic intellectual environment in the past, is becoming increasingly difficult. Professor MacRae comments, "I wait with horror for the moment when the only thing we can talk about together will be motor cars and mortgages." THE BEAVER, 8_* ********** •• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••*•••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••#••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Km ¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ••••••••••••••••••••••••?•••••••••• ¦ ¦ ¦ Hv ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••« ¦ Hm •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •*•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ¦ ¦¦¦¦ ¦ ¦ W •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••«« The Not-so-Loony Left Interview by CHRIS PHILIPSBORN ISSUE 259, FEBRUARY 23,1987 • •••••••••••••«••••••• '••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••• '••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••• '••••••••••••••••••••• m Ken Livingstone, 42, worked as a lab teclinician for 8 years before becoming a full-time Labour Councillor, eventually becoming leader of the Great London Council for 4 years. Since the abolition of the GLC last year, he has been making regular media appearances and is running as an MP for Brent, a safe Labour seat. Mr. Livingstone and I met at iunchtime near Warren Street Tube Station. He suggested an Indian restaurant wiiich we duly entered. After much rejoicing on behalf of the staff - I found out later that the owner had originally been funded by Lambeth Council, which Livingstone was then a part of, and that he had since gone on to establish a successful chain. We were shown to a quiet table at the back. He has a very relaxed manner, his hair was shorter than I remembered from various press cuttings, and he was dressed casually in a leather jacket and jeans. I am afraid that 1 could not resist asking about the welfare of his salamanders. Sadly, though, it seems as though these charming creatures will soon cease to adorn Livingstone interviews since nearly all of them are now "pushing up the daisies". It seems that the males drowned and that the females became eggbound and died, which sounds like a particularly nasty way to go. Sadly, there is only one survivor left. After a respectful silence we ordered. Mr. Livingstone had an enormous and interesting vegetarian dish - he's gone off red meat ('T want to live to see the revolution.") - and I had Lamb Tikka. The press. "I never push to get into the press . . . it's always bad news . . . The only papers that interview you, with the exception of "The Guardian", are there to put you down. I concentrate on radio and television." In ten years' time we're going to be in the midst of a great burst of Democratic Socialism. The leader of the left. "We are at the stage when there isn't a defined leader in the way there was when (Ton>'-Benn) was standing as Deputy leader (of the Labour Party) ... it looked as if he might become it (he lost to Dennis Healey by 0.8%). . . now we arc in a position when it is all much more defused and diverse . . . He does have massive support . . . and the support for Bcnn and the Left in the next Parliamentary Labour Party will be much larger. The incoming Labour candidates will be well to the left of anybody there." The next General Election. "There are only two things you can be certain of: one is that it will definitely happen before July 1988. and two is that the Alliance won't have a working majority . . . everything else is possible . . . Clearly the most likely outcome is a slight Torv majority . . . 3or4%." Is the Right in the ascendency'^ " . . . Less than it was . . . the end of post-war expansion and its problems and the reaction against bureaucracy allowed the Right ideology to come to the fore . . . but . . . this ideology has begun to look threadbare even more quickly than the left-wing intellectual constructions of the thirties . . . The left is starting to think in terms of international controls over capital and working with the left in other nations . . . I've not the slightest doubt that if you come back and interview me in ten years' time, we're going to be in the midst of a great burst of Democratic Socialism, not just in Tebbit trying to determine what is or isn't biased is a joke. Britain but across the rest of Western Europe ... At the nationalist level in Europe, you have this monetarist ideology -completely debauched from the origmal concept of Friedman -but bubbling below that you've got this much more radical municipal democratic socialist strand of thought, radical, influenced by 1968, right the way across Western Europe. That is going to come to the fore as Reagan, Kohl and Thatcher fail. We're going to go through a period when ... the generation that came out of the GLC learns administrative skills in other careers, and when you hit the point when there is a move to the left again, those people will just be there at the right time to build a new administrative class of the left, which we didn't have in 1945 or 1964 to draw on. All the polls now show massive support for increased tax and more public spending." Things to aim for in the next ten years. "I want to see a Labour government doing nationally everything that the GLC did locally; plus following a neutralist foreign policy and working towards building a genuinely neutral Europe which acts as a counter-balance between the superpowers." The EEC. "The problem with the EEC is that it holds back genuine moves towards European unity. It's such an offensive, wasteful and boring bureaucracy that it is very difficult to find any enthusiasm for Europe anywhere. You could sweep the EEC away and just go for an act of union among the member states. That would be great: one European Parliament, The EEC holds back genuine moves towards European unity. get devolution lo regions and cities and rural areas. It would give you an economic unit capable of challenging the US and working closely with the Soviet Union and the Third World." Prime Minister in ten years? (Laughter) "I suppose that if there was any prospect of that the Americans would have had me bumped off years ago! You ju.st can't tell." The LSE. "It was a meeting at the LSE that first made me aware of how popular the GLC could become. I had never really made a speech before, except of course in meetings where you might get twenty people turning up on a good day. I remember walking into that theatre (late summer '81), and people were hanging from the ceiling. I thought, 'My God, what's happened!"' Change? "I don't want to change just England, basically I want to change the whole world. You can't change much within England without changing things outside." Russia and Europe. "Gorbachev's reforms will go a long way. but they won't bring the technological and entrepreneurial change the Russian economy needs. Therefore, some time before the end of this decade or early in the next one, the Soviet leadership will be looking around for someone to bring that technology in . . . i.e. Europe." Entrepreneurs, redistribution of wealth and the Labour Party. "The Labour Party was obsessed for generations with redistributing wealth which they thought was inexhaustible and grew on trees. It is only since the de-industrialisation of Britain that Labour has woken up to the fact that you've actually got to create wealth. You've got to create a climate in which in can be done. There is rethinking going on as to the best way of doing that. Kin-nock has basically adopted the industrial enterprise strategies of the radical Labour councils. He's talking of creating that Britain-wide . . . You've got to go for a growth, and that involves a rapid development of the Soviet, East European and Third World economies." We have the most appalling press, much worse than the American press. Journalists and the media. "There a lot of very good journalists. but they work for papers like "The Guardian". "The Financial Times" and "The Independent" . . . but. "The Daily Mail" pays a lot more and a lot of good journalists get trapped on the "Mail" because of their mortgages. We have . . . the most appalling press, much worse than, say, the American press. Fortunately for us, most people get their news from Radio and TV which is much less biased . . . There is an Establishment bias on radio and television . . . you always get an Establishment bias whatever country you're in ... " The Establishment - How is it tackled? "Basically by replacing it; saving the elements that are prepared to work with progressive forces and opening up the Establishment so that new forces can come into it. Our Establishment is so much more damaging than, say. the American or French ones. It's so much more elitist, enclosed, small and incestuous - they've been inbreeding for generations. They're also particularly dumb compared to their rivals. As a good entrepreneurial capitalist society, we've been a complete disaster. Forty years of unrivalled declines. Only Argentina has declined more drastically than we have since the Second World War ... No wonder we had to have a war with them to see which of us actually was at the bottom." Continued decline? "Until you change the nature of the elite in Britain and unleash the talent of the rest of society, who didn't go to Oxbridge or public school or who haven't married into the right families, that decline will continue. We have never had our meritocratic revolution." An elite of excellence? "I recognize that you need to take the most gifted elements in society and develop them . . . because they produce the products and processes and techniques that society uses. What you don't tlo, though, is give them power over the rest of society , . . Very often those people who have the brilliance in terms of the development of products and theories are moral imbeciles. Find me some chess grandmaster! Society is best run by average people because you've got to sell what you are doing to average people." The House of Lords. "I suppose the easiest way of dealing with it would be a large cyanide capsule dropped in the middle - But that would be inhuman - you might take out some of the attendants. The idea that that is the constitutional safeguard on the Executive is just a joke. There should not be a second chamber based on birth or artificial creation." In favour of decentralisation? "Hmmm . . . Really strong decentralisation of all the personal services of the state . . . But central government tries to remain as a really strong redistribution of wealth." Neil Kinnock "I have many differences on policy issues with him, but the left should not try to create a diversion to his leadership campaign . . . I know that otherwise we could not win, and the left would be even smaller afterwards. We are leaving the party rally behind and trying to work to push him in the right direction, ... do it constructively." The S.D.P. "I am delighted they went. They were mainly deadbeats and racists. There were a few good people in there like Shirley'Wil-iiams and John Cartright ... the Islington councillors that went over should have been in the National Front." Militant expulsions. "I'm opposed to expulsions. 1 just don't think you resolve political differences by expelling people. The best thing to do with Militant was to ridicule them and laugh them out of existence. Such a deeply conservative group of people claiming to be revolutionary Nazis was a joke. I see Militant much more as a religious cult than a political faction." The biggest threat to world peace is America and Reagan. America and Russia "I think that the majority of people in Britain now think that the biggest threat to world peace is America and Reagan. No Russian leader has broken through into world consciousness until Gorbachev. If you contrast his abilities with Reagan's, it's frightening. Somebody in America needs to explain why this dynamic capitalist society produces such a succession of psychopaths and crooks as its ex-presidents. It really is the excrement floating to the top. America is a very attractive and open society, so how the leadership of it is so gross . . . Mind you, I'm not saying that we do so well ourselves." SEE PAGE 9 THE BEAVER. ISSUE 259. FEBRUARY 23. 1987 FEATURES • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••a* • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••* •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 9 Just What is the Zircon Affair About? Spccial Branch officers remove films seized from the BBC during the raid on .¦?! January. FROM PAGE 8 Royalty. "Everyone should have a Royal Family. What is so amazing about it is that it has become the British equivalent of "Dynasty" or "Dallas". I should imagine that it is a lot cheaper to produce our Royal Family than it is to produce "Dynasty"." Normal Tebbit and the BBC. "The Tory leadership are used to getting a completely compliant Fleet Street. Tebbit scrcams "Loony Left councils!" and it fills the tabloids for months. TV has to maintain an analytical balance and therefore, they can't just do a straight propaganda job like the press. Tebbit trying to determine what is or isn't biased is a joke. There has never been a more bigoted and biased man in Christendom; a really frightening piece of work is our Norman. I tried him one-to-one, and I thought he needed psychiatric care." Left-Wing Councils. "Do you remember the flack the GLC got in 1981? That was worse than all of this. It was a tissue of lies then, and it's a tissue of lies now. It's only because we've got the most debauched and corrupt press in the world that they can get away with it." Where do you get your fun from? "Cinema mainly. My favourite film, I suppose, is "2001 - 'A Space Odyssey'" which I've seen to death. The most enjoyable film I saw lately was "Heavenly Pursuits', you come out feeling pleasant and warm." Life in general. "I'm a typical working class kid who failed academically at every level. So when I did my 8 years as a really lowly type of hospital technician - sweeping floors and cleaning - there was never any prospect in my life that I would actually achieve anything. So, to suddenly get involved in the Labour Party . . . and then five years in the GLC which were wonderful beyond belief, even when it was horrendously bad, it was fulfilling beyond belief. Interesting to think we might be 'able to do it nationally, or internationally!" America has passed from adolescence to senility without any process in between." De Gaulle. To be or not to be bought off. "I got a personal letter from Kissinger asking if I would like to come to this 'Georgetown Seminar for Emerging World Leaders'. You can just see generations of Roy Jenkins', David Owen's -being called 'emerging world leaders' - they'd have an orgasm on the spot? America has bought the leadership of almost every Western European government. De Gaulle once gave the most graphic description of America's problems; it had passed from adolescence to senility without any process in between." Our conversation became more general. Mr. Livingstone had just finished a book and had been pleased and not a little surprised by a £50.000 advance. His bemusement was particularly enhanced when he worked out that he had earned a total of £58,000 in 24 years of full-time work. He was thinking of buying somewhere to live and "settle down". "It is a depressing prospect that at the age of 42, all my best times in my life are behind me. Short of being Prime Minister, what could be more fun than running the GLC?" Wheeling and dealing. "1 would prefer to appeal directly just to people and not have to wheel and deal. But I'm quite good at it ... " By ROBERT CRIPPS On Saturday, 31sf January, Special Branch raided the BBC offices in Glasgow and confiscated several vanloads of material relating to a documentary series entitled "The Secret Society". In the House of Commons Mrs. Thatcher denied initiating the raid, claiming "the government does not give orders to the police on how, when and where they enforce the law." The fact that material relating to all but one programme in the series was returned by 9th February indicates that the police were unable to find any illegal material. The one film witheld, that about the Zircon spy satellite, therefore seems to have featured information that breached National Security, but having seen this film I know this to be unture. The Zircon Project is a signal interception (spy) satellite conceived to give Britain intelligence-gathering facilities independent of the United States. That much has been known since 1984 when "Interspace", a small specialist space industry magazine published details of it. The story, which took five months to research, also revealed that at £500 million this secret satellite would be in breach of Ministry of Defence rules whereby any project costing more than £1(H) million should be accounted for in Parliament. Several months later, a British Aerospacc newsletter announced that a third "Skynet" military communication satellite was to be built and put into orbit above central Asia. Skynet is a relay satellite system designed to speed up British military communications around the world, but for this job only two are necessary. So why were they building a third, and why was this to be stationed in a position of only limited military value? Duncan Campbell, an investigative journalist researching for the BBC series, put two and two together and the result was the Zircon film. In the course of his investigations, he lunched twice with Sir Michael Havers, the Attorney-General, as well inter- By Brian Boyd "And I wonder do you wonder When you're sleeping with your whore That sharing beds with history is like licking running sores" Banana Republic Boomtown Rats At the time of going to press it appears that Ireland's Fianna Fail party will form the new government despite being a projected three seats short of an overall majority in the Dail (Irish Parliament). The outgoing Government coalition of Fine Gael and Labour have lost seats and the recently-formed Progressive Democrat party under the leadership of Dessie O'Malley arc projected to take between twelve and fourteen seats. The Workers Party are expected to double their number of deputies in the Dail from two to four and Sinn Fein aren't expected to win any seats. Most significantly there have already been four independents returned and these will determine the fate of the country as Fianna Fail attempt to court them in an effort to attain a majority in the Dail. viewing Sir Ronald .Mason about Zircon amongst other matters. This information was passed on to the Ministry of Defence last October. Then it is almost certain that the government knew about the film. Moreover, if there were no breaches of national security featured in the film, just why did the government react so adversely to its impending transmission? If its behaviour was inspired by national security, why were the offices of Interspace not raided by Special Branch? Why were no prosecutions brought under the notorious Section Two of the Official Secrets Act in 1984? If the Glasgow raid was aimed at the security risk posed by the BBC film, why did they wait until the end of January to act ... at least four months after the existence of the film became known to them? If it is true, as Mrs. Thatcher has claimed, that Special Branch were responsible as to "how, when and where they enforce the law", why did it take them so long to react? One expects (or hopes for) a little more efficiency from the Security Police on matters of such vital concern to the security of the nation. The reason for all this is that the government's behaviour has not been inspired by national security. Interspace was not prosecuted in 1984 because, according to the Attorney-General, its revelations "'were not considered to be sufficiently based on fact" to pose a threat to national security. "Yet, the offices of the "New Statesman", which ran the story after the BBC suppressed it, were raided on January 26th. The incongruity of this has not been all together lost; Dale Campbell-Savours, the Labour MP for Workington, has pointed out the double standards in the treatment of an "establishment defence magazine and a left-wing journal like the "New Statesman'". The security risk posed by Duncan Campbell's film itself is irrelevant now, especially so after thousands have seen it up and down the country. It now seems as if the only place you can't see it "Forty shades of Green and sixty shades of red, hear it's going cheap these days, price a bullet in the head" With almost twenty per cent unemployment and a per capita foreign debt that is three times as high as Mexico, the new government will not be celebrating their victory so much as accepting it with trepidation. The Country has suffered a brain- drain of epidemic proportions - out of a class of forty-three civil engineers who graduated two years ago, fory-two emigrated. The simple fact is that when the world's economy catches a cold, Ireland gets the flu. The greatest natural resource the country has is its people, yet this .source has yet to be successfully lapped by any government. "Striking up a soldier's song, I know that tune, it begs too many questions and answers too" i here are a number of people in Ireland today who are older than the country. The tragic fact of partition in 1921 is that the country has never been allowed to is in the Houses of Parliament, where it has been banned by the Speaker, Bernard Weatherall. The implications of this, too, are worrying. Former Labour Prime Minister. Jim Callaghan, warned, ""If we were to regard this as a precedent. 1 would regard it as a constitutional outrage." Moreover, Parliament has already been duped by the Ministry of Defence when it witheld information about the costs of Zircon, then conceded its existence. The most worrying aspect of the whole affair has been the raid of the BBC officcs in Glasgow. This revealed nothing new to the police but a great deal to the press. It is unconceivable that the government was ignorant of the raid beforehand - raiding the otiices of the state broadcasting service is not quite the same as raiding some house for drugs! Merlyn Rees, Labour's former Home Secretary said he would have been astonished if the Home Secretary had not been informed. True enough, on 4th February the Lord Advocate, Lord Cameron, who granted the search warrant, admitted that he had informed Malcolm Rifkind. the secretaryof state for Scotland, of the warrant on the same day as the raid. This flatly contradicts Malcolm Rif-kind's statement in the Commons the previous day. One can asume therefore, that there was a good deal of government encouragement behind the operate as a single economic unit. Ireland suffered the colonial experience for eight hundred years, and judged in those terms it is doing relatively well for a sixty-five year old country. Culturally and artistically the country ranks among the best in the world. "The Purple and the pin-stripe that mutely shake their heads, a silent shrieking volume, a violence worse than they condemn" The Irish, like the British, believe in having their hstory tailor-made, the inferiority complex that is a necessary consequence of colonialism has been cleverly exploited by the Catholic Church who along with the gombeen man have had the country in a spirtual and emotional stranglehold. The Irish people are consistently misrepresented and misinterpreted 'abroad. The Stage "Oirishness" so beloved by American tourists is a myth and a misnomer; the clergy-ridden gun-toting image is equally off the mark. The Irish people given the chance have a lot to contribute - "How long : must we sing this song?" raid, a raid which turned up no breaches of national security. It seems likely that the object of the raid was political. Its aim was to instil journalists with a fear of government reprisals should they publish or transmit material that the Conservative Government does not wish the public to hear about. This is entirely in keeping with the propoganda war that Normal Tebbit has been waging against the BBC for the last year. The fact that Alaisdair Milne, the (now ex-) Director-General of the BBC dropped the Zircon film in mid-January only shows just how succe.sslul that campaign has been. The conclusions one can draw from this affair are somewhat grim. Governments have always tried to suppress information about security matters. In 1978, for example, one Duncan Campbell was charged under Section Two of the Official Secrets Act for publishing leaked material, it should be noted that the government in 1978 was Labour, so it's not just the Conservatives who have exclusive rights to abu.ses of press freedom. Ncverthless, the trend under the present Con-.servative government is frightening, not merely in the extent of the abuses of the media, but in the ease with which they get away with it. I Is Britain turning mto, as Roy Jenkins put it, "a second-rate police state, infused equally by illiberalisni and incompetence"? Half Term Playgroup This term's playgroup will be taking place from Monday, 23 February, to Friday, 27 February. Parents of school-aged children (only) who wish to use this free service should sign their children's names, etc. on the list outside the Students' Union Welfare Office (E.295). The playgroup runs from 10 am to 1 pm and 2 pm to 5 pm and will be held on the top floor of the Students' Union Coffee Bar. Helpers Wanted Half term playgroup assistants needed to help run the playgroup. If you have some time to spare between Monday, 23 February, and Friday 27 February, please sign the volunteers' notice outside the Welfare Office (E.295). Don't let life be all work and no play! TYPISTS The Beaver requires extra typing help, to relieve the pressure on our overworked staff. We pay £2.00 per thousand words. Anyone interested should look for Andy Blakeman in the Beaver office, Room E205, East Building. Irish Elections THE BEAVER, ISSUE 259, FEBRUARY 23, 1987 10 • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• »•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••*• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ARTS I • • •«• • )••••< Korean Master Drummers This week, one of the world's greatest jazz trumpeters, harry "Sweets" Edison. February 15th saw him play to a packed and appreciative audience at Pizza Express, Dean Street. (A regular late night jazz venue often featuring some of the best names in the business.) I managed to drag some friends along to see him and they were instantly converted, as was I given the fact that I'd only ever heard him on album. Edison has graced many a bandstand, frequently featuring alongside the tenor sax of Lester Young in the Count Basie Band. He also did demanding sessions for Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole as well as regularly gigging with the late great Billie Holliday, who became a close personal friend. It's not surprising, then, that his rendition of her classic number "Lover Man" was charged with tremendous emotional intensity. A silent hush fell over the audience; drinks were held in suspended animation. At last everyone could realise why he was nicknamed "Sweets". The song, indeed all the numbers he played, was handled with real tenderness without succombing to vacuous sentimentality. Apparently, just to change the subject a little, the real reason Edison got his nickname was his love of sweets. The question 1 ask myself is, if he loses his teeth, will the powers that be rename him "gums"? It's an interesting thought. Imagine if they applied such criteria to all the great: Frank Sinatra (old "Blue Eyes") would be renamed "old Red Eyes" in accordance with the quality of his recent singing. But back to the review. Pizza Express is not the cheapest of-venues (expensive is the word I'm looking for); tickets can be £3-6 and then you have to buy food, again £3-6, and most people get booze. So you can easily reckon on £10-12. But it's a superb venue, and if you choose your artist well, then the atmosphere can more than make up. But warning, you're there to . . . listen!! I once tried to wine and dine a friend there and we ended up having to shout "sweet nothings" to one another. I can tell you, when the music suddenly stops that can be most embarassing! Still, if you want to eat in a pleasant atmosphere and hear some very tasty music, then it's highly recommended. The commercialism of Ronnie Scott's is happily absent, and the waitresses aren't constantly asking you if you're enjoying your meal, etc. Throughout the three-hour performance, Edison exhibited perfect mastery of his horn -none of that hundred-notes-a-second harsh grating stuff one frequently associates with the trumpet; but instead perfectly and gently controlled runs combined with beautiful, soft, blue notes. Here was a man from an old school of playing, but whose emotional message (if the audience's reaction is anything to judge by) is as alive today as it was in the days of Young and Holliday. But I've got to say something about the man's politics because he raised the subject in ironic and off-the-cuff remarks during his performance. Well, all I can say is I wish jazz musicians had as coherent a world view as their music is unified. This guy expressed a singular dislike for both Ronald Reagan and the American divorce system (apparently the latter leaves the men with no money, albeit the "Sweets"' fingers were crammed with chunky gold rings!), and he also thought Frank Sinatra was the next best thing to sliced bread. I couldn't resist asking him how he squared Reagan and Sinatra. "Was it," I asked, "because Sinatra is such a demanding person to work with?" (I'd heard he once did 36 takes on a number.) The answer was "Yeah, I did 40 takes with the man - he's a real professional!" (That's another thing about jazz, they're really sparing with their words - this was about the longest reply I got.) Giorgio Meszaros Logan Hall 18th February To demonstrate that to be "powerful", energetic and awe inspiring you don't need a bass guitar or umpteen thousand pounds worth of amplification, the Korean Master Drummers "Samul-Nori" came to the Logan Hall at the Institute of Education last Wednesday. Their name means "the play of four things", the instruments being: the "changgo" — hourglass shaped double-ended drums; a flat bass drum called a "puk", a small gong called a "kkwaenggwari" which has a penetrating tone and a larger 20 inch gong called a "ching" which marks the measure of the rhythm and fills the sound out. for the first half of the evening, rhythms combined to form complex patterns, the expertise of the drummers making the constant changes inrhythm appear improvised; the four men played as one, and the silence that followed a frenzied crescendo was sharp and cutting. The second half of the performance was performed as a dance. The four men playing their drums danced like whirling Dervishes. Long ribbons anchored on Korean military-style hats twirled around to form patterns in the air, adding visual excitement. The audience joined in (slowly) with The music is largely the traditional music of Korean farmers' bands; "Samul-Nori", though, add their own embellishments as well as using rhythms from shamanistic ceremonies. The resulting hybrid for modern London tastes is compulsive, older people in Korea say, "They don't play like we used to," me ... I would take such mastery of instruments in any form, either replicating traditional sounds or utilising them as a base for new ones. Four pieces were performed UlU travel STUDENT travel handbook % TSTvUoridbeaters H'SFREEl Getyoursi Enquiries and SES Bookings European 01-581 8233 Intercontinental 01-581 1022 A service of I ULU Travel East Building London School of Economics TheWoridbeaters /foe^ shouts, cries and clapping, (it is so against the English temper-ment, though, to RELAX). By the end the whole theatre was rolling to the music. Conventional theatres can be such inappropriate places for performances of "folk" cum "ethnic" music, but the Korean Drummers pulled it off. This was the beginning of a nationwide tour funded by the Contemporary Music - Network [part of the Arts Council). It is pleasing to see that music of a traditional nature comes under its umbrella, Jownsend Prefab Sprout: No Protest Songs? Prefab Sprout have kept fairly quiet since their highly acclaimed album "Steve McQueen" in 1985. They released a few singles from the album, had a minor hit and that was it. So it seems. Don't be deceived! They recorded a Peel Session including the brilliant "Cars and Girls" and 40 minutes worth of songs that were due to be released last summer as an album to be called "Protest Songs". Even though the album was listed in the official discography of the band in last year's tour programme, it ne ver came out. Through a lucky coincidence, however, 1 managed to get hold of a tape with both the album and the Peel Session on it. The Peel Session includes two brilliant pop songs that beat everything in the current Top 40 by miles; superb stuff. Unfortunately, the album doesn't quite live up to such standards. It's dominated by the more quiet and weird songs that one expects from Prefab Sprout. The lyrics are getting more irritating, too. Nevertheless, it has its good moments and "Tiffany's" is one of the best songs the band has ever written. Conclusion: CBS refused to release the album on the grounds of it being uncommercial. I'd still give it 6 out of 10 should it ever be released. Moustache The Style Council Royal Albert Hall 18/2/87 The R.A.H. is not a great place to see a rock concert. Huge dishes hang from the ceiling, malevolent mushrooms threatening to overrun the whole place. I confidently expected one to come crashing down, leaving a few lethargic fans squashed onto the carpet. It would have provided some, interest. Interest was particularly necessary as a "restricted view" seat meant that the audience was about all that could be seen. Looking down on the vast expanse of the lighting rig, one could just see, at risk of plunging 90 feet to one's doom, about a third of the stage. This entitled you to such edifying sights as Mick Talbot's bald patch bobbing gently back and forward for 75 minutes, The distinct lack of a view was particularly unfortunate insofar as the support was TSC's film "Jerusalem". There was little novelty in a film show where you couldn't see the film (some people were actually sat behind the screen ... ). Of course I exaggerate, I could actually see the top right quarter of the screen, now and again. From what I could make out from the occasional picture and the poor soundtrack, it was a somewhat indulgent affair. Scripted by Paulo Hewitt, that famous Weller scribe, it appeared something along the lines of The Jozun Crew (a kind of Jackson Five in pirates' clothing - I kid you not) against the British state. The "restricted view" meanwhile at least gave an interesting perspective on things. Some concerts you wait for with the eagerness of an eight year old desperate for Christmas. Others just creep up on you. This one kind of slithered. In the face of poor reviews for both the new album and the concert the night before, I wasn't really expecting that much from "the main attraction" themselves. It was just as well. Taking the stage with two drummers, a la Genesis, and a plethora of unnecessary backing musicians, TSC were smooth and soulless. Hampered by a bad sound system, the new songs "It Didn't Matter", "Waiting", "The Cost of Loving", "Woman's Song", merged into each other as everything got blurred around the edges. The older songs were largely conspicuous by their absence. "Moneygoround" was strangely out of place. Tonight's gentle forays into politics were toke-nistic at best. "Internationalists" was reduced to an almost sub-HM thrash, while "Have You Ever Had It Blue"/ "Everything to Lose" was spoilt by Weller's fumbling vocal, and his gratuitous guitar solo. That was about it, a one hour set, plus one and a half encores, and home in time to hear "Today in Parliament" on the radio. It was drab and boring, reflecting TSC's narrowed horizons. On their first tour, in London, they were overanxious and untidy. But it was obviously a beginning. In Brixton two years ago, they were everything you could ever ask for. 'Tonight was the end. Billed as "The General Election Tour", the sad irony is that TSC, like the Labour Party, is faihng to make the grade. In both cases, a radical new approach is needed. At least this is easier for Welle'' tha'n fUr Walworth road. It was a brave, perhaps unexpected decision, to break up The Jam. Most people wouldn't have made it the first time, and it might be unfair to expect him to make it a second. James Robertson THE BEAVER. ISSUE 259, FEBRUARY 23. 1987 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• >•••••••••• • •••••••••• • •••••••••• ARTS • • • 4 • • • • • • • « • ••••••••••••••a • •••••••••••••• >••••••••••••••< )••••••••••••••••< • •••••••••••••••• )••••••••••••••••< >••••••••••••# • •••••••••• >••••••# > • • • • 4 >••••••••••••••••••••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••< >••••••••••••••••••••••••• )•••••••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••• )•••••••••••••••••••••••••• 11 Ferris Bueller's Day Off Compact Discs for >¦'1 Have you seen "Risky Business"? Do you remember Tom Cruise's long weekend? Well, if you expect more of the same, you will be disappointed. Matthew Broderick (Ferris) is no comparison to Cruise. He decides to take a day off school. The viewer is led to believe that Ferris can achieve anything; the viewer is led to expect everything. Instead, what the viewer gets is a sickly-pale youth who is good at twisting his best friend s arm, forcing him into situations he does not want, exploiting him. Ferris drives Cameron's father's red Ferrari. They go out on the town in the company of Ferris's girlfriend, (would you believe it, her name is Sloane!). The three of them are all on a "wild day", wiiile the Headmaster is on the war path to capture Ferris; his parents are happily away in the behef of the innocence of their son, while Ferris's sister is having a personality crisis. Boy Soldier Boy Soldier, or Milwr Bychan to give it its proper title, is the story of a young squaddie in Northern Ireland, charged with murder while on patrol. His superiors use increasingly more brutal methods as a way of eliciting a confession. Will, in solitary confinement, finds increasingly more extreme ways of coping psychologically with the pressure that is brought to bear upon him. But this is only the surface current. The film is about resistance, resiliance and feeling apart — being foreign Will is part of the British army in Northern Ireland, but he is also a Welsh squaddie under the foot, literally, of Englishmen. Their cruelty makes one flinch, not because of its severity, but because of its fatalistic acceptance by all parties. Perpetrator and recipient are both imprisoned by the greater violence of which they are a part. The love between Will and a young Irish girl is cut brutally Metro Cinema Joul Man short by circumstance. When he returns to see her, she has been tarred and feathered for fraternising with a soldier. But he is a Boy Soldier (as they all are now), adn his naivete is both his strength and his weakness. He can endure what they throw at him, smile when they spit at him. But he makes others pay, and they are people - like the girl and the Welsh Salvation Army minister - who love him. The film is largely in Welsh, with English subtitles, it is a private, eloquent discourse. When English is heard, it is harsh and coarse by comparison. Excellent performances by Bernard Hill and Richard Lynch, coupled with uncompromising photography, erase any initial doubts. The dull thud of compounded violence - blow by blow -has a cumulative effect, and by the end it's crushing. Jacques Peretti What does it take to get into Harvard Law School? The answer is $54,000 or being black. Once Mark Watson loses his daddy's financial support, he decides to turn black by using experimental tanning pills. From then on, the plot deteriorates further more - if that is possible - with the obvious crass events of parental rejection and boy meets girl, boy loses girl because he gets laid by another girl, etc, etc, etc. This film is an insult to black people, to white people, to any rational thinker. It pretends to attempt to explore the gray area of inter-racial relationships. However, the manner in which this theme is attacked is ridiculous. No insight into the real- life problems is given; no questions are raised, no answers are provided. To make things worse, Mark Watson turns white in time to gain back his parents' It all looks promising, but the wild adventure is not delivered. Ferris's day off is more or less similar to any other kid's playing truant. He climbs to the top of the highest building in Chicago, goes to a baseball game and eats out at an expensive restaurant. Ferris even kills an expensive car. But whereas in "Risky Business" Cruise kills his father's Porche (and then manages to replace it), Ferris is responsible for the death of Cameron's Ferrari and makes no effort to consolidate the position. By far, the fullest character is that of Cameron, a kid at war with his parents, living in fear of his father; a kid who discovers himself in a Seurat painting. Ferris Bueller is a cheat and a liar, the movie is a disappointment and well worth giving a miss. On a miserable rainy Sunday evening you might as well watch the video of "Risky Business". Stavros Makris love, society's acceptance and his girl back. § By the fend of 1987, CDs will account j for 20 per cent of British bwif- ^ play s^esj ljut fiieie is $tlll a j preslricted range ol aiusic avaE- ^ -able, thus aBowiftg the jbcsjM ' scompanies to i$trained biology. Viayl when^ jrubbed vigorously against hU' Iman $lcin is passionately ail>;; Iconsamjirg,'' (Morrisasy, The fSmiths} ^ Nevertheless, The Smiths; ^appear on CD a$ do The Fall,"; ~^aic Youth, The Cramps and, ,Cene$ts P. Orridge, in pM they .are contributing to an ethos' 'which is Hialdng music more; I expensive and ^erefore less; ^attahiable. ' So where to front h&re ~ the -Japanese electronics indxistry; -is now pushing D.AX {Digital ;Aadio Tape) which allows per-, 'feet CD styie r^roduction on a i This is an exercise in the absurd, and it is sickening. What could the motivation behind such a movie be? How can anyone be so naive as to suggest that transformation from white to black and back to white is such a smooth operation? - without even touching the most obvious of the issues? There is no soul to be found in this movie. Stavros Makris nom-cassette, mere is nothing; inheioriliv wrong with applying new technology to the -music business, but what is wrong is the divisivenoss thcjt il etitalls. Some would argue that 'we have a choice to buy such musirai accoutrements as CDs, but that choici* only belongs to those who t an afford thism As usual it takes an Ins-hpcrson to cut through the crap •'I couldn't c.m: Itiss about our records, btang on CD, there's nothing immortal about a piece :of mf>tal. It's something rpcord-s money, 'but they won't be getting nnv of mine" (Cathal" Coughhii!, Microthsney) Brian Boyd Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Young Vic An evening with George and Martha is an evening not to be forgotten in a hurry. Whilst they may seem to be the quintessential older, established college history professor and his wife, not very far beneath the surface lies a destructive force so horrific in its intensity that no one is safe. George and Martha like to play games; they like to play games with each other, and occasionally, they like to incorporate other people into the game. They thrive on and are addicted to sarcastic, hurtful verbal exchanges, to ferreting out weaknesses in another person, then turning around and using that information as a psychological weapon against that person. It is almost as though George and Martha, so loathing their present situation, feel the only way they can survive from day to day is to keep up this constant barrage of insults and abuse. It is their stimulus; their raison d'etre. They feed off the apparent hatred, mistrust and hidden knowledge possessed by the other, and without someone else with whom to play the game or an audience for the diatribes, each would be destroyed. In what must be an emotionally and physically draining evening, the four actors prove themselves capable of bringing substance and credibility to their characters. Patrick Stewart, in particular, gives an outstanding performance as a man whose sanity is continually strained by the vitriolic remarks of his wife. He must be ever on the alert as the rules of the game the two have played for so long change without warning. Stewart's "George" has the physical agility of a cat and the mental ability of a practiced strategist as he tries to outwit and outplay his wife. As "Martha", Billie Whitelaw has the unenviable task of bringing to life a woman who is raucous, caustic, purposefully hurtful, and seemingly uncaring about anyone, least of all her husband. "Martha" is a multi-faceted woman, however, who certainly doesn't inspire warmth and a good-hearted nature, but who has blamed much of her disappointment in life on her husband and lashes out in frustration at anyone who cuts across her path. While Miss Whitelaw's performance is rivetting in its intensity, she initially seems uncomfortable with her character. She couldn't quite settle down with the accent or gestures; however, by the second act, the uncertainty had disappeared and the actress and the character merged together. As the unsuspecting and unwilling victims of the evening at George and Martha's, Mathew Marsh, as "Nick", and Saskia Reeves, as "Honey", added the necessary dimensions of confusion and naive anger once they realise they have become pawns in the game over which they have no control whatsoever. They are no match for George and Martha, despite Nick's attempts to fight back or to discern just what is occuring and why. Director David Thacker has put together a group of actors who bring to the production their considerable talents, and together, the ensemble has brought fresh insight and life into the brilliantly written play by Edward Albee. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is playing at The Young Vic through 24th March. Ann Henry Outside Edge by Rich; rd Harris On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings this week, the LSE Drama Society is staging this amusing play based on the "outside edge" of an amateur cricket match. It is an intricate study of the tension of "teams" - sports teams, marital teams and business teams. The cast of the television production included Paul Edding-ton, Maureen Lipman and Prunella Scales. The LSE cast is similarly star-studded! Crispin Leyser and Lucy Smith — the well-known participants in the Christmas revue - have main roles. Kathryn Parsons and Mark Rogers, both experienced thesbians, play the leading couple in the drama. There are also several talented American actors involved. Judging from the amount of rehearsals and the feedback from them, there certainly should be some laughs from this production. Tickets are £1.50 at the door. The show starts at 7.30 in the Old Theatre. Don't miss it! Nicola Hill LSE Hockey Report '87 The story so far . .. ' Three matches played, two lost and one actually won! The first match vs. St. Thomas' saw Killer Christine McCauley with her terrier instincts dribble the ball two inches over the line -much to our surprise and that of the other team, too! It was a good game and a nice start for the term - the score was LSE II's 1 St. Thomas' 0. The second match was a visii to UCL for the umpteenth time I, myself, have been there 3 times, twice to play UCL II's, once for the first team (Wow!) and also for the IPs in the cup. On my third visit I expected to play UCL's 2nd division team -UCL II's (UCL II's are in the 1st division). To my surprise, it was exactly the same team as before - including their amazing drama student who rolls around in "agony" after being tapped on the knee! After a good fight -especially by the defence, UCL were lucky enough (!) to score in the second half The forward line tried several times to equalize, but unfortunately the goalkeeper kept getting in the way. All played well, and the final score was: LSE II's 0 - UCL II's (oops! Ill's) 1. In our last match on Saturday, the 31st, a special guest appearance was made by Carr-Saunders H.P., Rachel Platts. This was probably the best match we've ever had, and it was against SSEES who are new to the league. Raquel played brilliantly in goal, and the defense - Lucy S. and Juliette H. - helped keep the ball out of the "D" while the halves - Julia, Maria and Carol - pushed the ball up to the forwards. Maria and Rachel played very well as wings, constantly crossing the ball into the D. One superb cross from Rachel led to a goal from Kate which equalized the match in the second half An injured Christine and a chipped-tooth Emma helped both defend and tried at goal, too. However, we unfortunately lost the match 2 -1 to SSEES. But, as the Second's motto goes, who cares what the score is as long as we have had a good time (during or after the match!!). P.S. Best wishes to Carol Hubbard who is unfortunately in hospital for the next few weeks. Hope all goes well. Love, Kate and team LSE Football M.X.U.C. 1st XI 1 LSE 1st XI 1 On the day when the Spaniards were trounced by four goals from the best English finisher since Jimmy Greaves, the LSE sadly need some of that Lineker magic in the six-yard box against run of the mill opposition. That said -LSE played what one spectator called "the most exciting and flowing brand of football seen at Shenley for many a long year". After a good opening (chances falling to both front players) one got the feeling it was going to be one of those days. The Mancunian powerhouse, otherwise known as Rob Jones, ordered the midfield enabling the creativity and distribution of Connolly and Wakefield to have full effect. Unfortunately sweet passing movements do not count on the scoresheet and nearly every attacking player was guilty of a front of goal blunder. As two snowstorms swept across the pitch, Ferrari begging for abandonment and a hot mug of Cup-a-Soup. LSE kept plugging away and finally the breakthrough came. After another miss - this time by Wakefield - the ball broke free and Connolly slammed in his second goal of the season from 18 yards. Would the floodgates open? The simple answer - no they wouldn't. A seemingly harmless punt upfield by the opposition found Nolan and Watson frozen in a position from Torvill and Dean, the MXUC forward gratefully accepting the chance to put his team back on terms. To their credit LSE fought back, determined to gain their first point(s) after the Christmas break - two desperate penalty appeals, a disallowed "goal" and another howler from Jones (who obviously didn't have his mind on the game) could not seal victory for the best team. It is a pity that such a well-balanced LSE team will not acquire the key to the trophy cabinet yet again this season and indeed are in danger of the drop. The whole season could be summed up by the after matoh comment of the referee who consoled: "1 think you were a little bit unlucky". National UAU 5-a-side Football Competition After late night preparations in China Town, the LSE footballers set off for Colchester in their usual organised manner eventually arriving with just 30 seconds to spare. This was to be an inspired performance, which was even more remarkable considering half the team were almost killed in a high speed motorway incident -largely thanks to ADAM MAR-KIN who spent the rest of the day "sleeping it off. On a more serious note, this was one of the high spots of the LSE football club in a decade. This was a truly magnificent performance. Five straight wins conccding only one goal took the team to the semifinals. Such giants as Durham, Brunei. East Anglia and OMC were swept aside by the sheer determination and commitment of the LSE lads. Our more illustrious opponents were shaken out of their stride by the fierce tackling and professionalism of Nocan, Mackenzie and Jones which combined perfectly with the creativity up front of Shipstone and Wakefield. This coupled with the agility of Nick "The Cat" West provided a lethal formula. The LSE side were eventually defeated in the semifinal by last season's champions Keele, when the fitness of the team came under serious scrutiny which is hardly surprising considering the performances of the lads in the discos at Saunders and Passfield. Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Shippy Scored Three and Jonesy Scored Too. P.S. Can Nolo have the rest of his arm back please. West, Nocan (2), Jones (3), Mackenzie (3), Shipstone (3). Wakefield, Markin (Slept). Rugby LSE 1st XV 20 St. Mary's R.F.C. 0 With a biting snow gale to contend with, the LSE pulled off yet another victory to extend its unbeaten record. The forwards played well throughout, but the slippery conditions made handling difficult for the backs. The breakthrough came with a try by Eric "Bubbles" Selous, collecting a loose ball from the pack and bustling his way over the line. In the second half, a missed penalty in front of the posts rebounded kindly, and quick hands enabled winger Phil Bartleggs to touch down in the corner. Not long after, a useful high ball was picked up by Josh Chetwood, who ran through several defenders before sticking the ball under the posts. Finally, it was continued pressure against a spirited St. Mary's defence which led to Paddy fo-gan completing a successful blindside move. Photo: Hilary Slade Photo: Niccl WiNon LSE Riding Club The LSE A-Team, with Nancy Handler, James Paget and Michael Klein, won last Wednesday convincingly against UCL and Barts Colleges in the London Intercollegiate League. With 221 points, the LSE was far ahead of the runner up, UCL, with 187 points, followed by Barts totalling 164 points. Individually, Nancy would have won were it not for 15 penalty points during the jumping, which gave her a final nose of 73 points. Instead, Michael took first with a clear jumping round and a dressage nose of 82 points. The A-Team and the B-Team, consisting of Sharon Mitchell, Liz Thomas and Gordon Tichell, have good chances in the London League as well as hoping to do well in the individual competitions. THE BEAVER CROPTIC CRYSSWORD Compiled by Katrina Kalishnikov Across 1. Cheerful sign I'm back in the grotty LSE (5) 4. Trick "fuse muddle (7) 7. Horse around at the print union (1,1.1) 9. Give gas after unpleasant rash becomes painful (5) 10. Revealing record before being beaten (10) 13. Last rogue you t'lrow about excessively (12) 15. Wished to be knight in courageous act (7) 17. Make way (7) 20. Couple of thousand metaphors 1 alter to change character (12) 22. Sounds like deformed pillow makes good conversations (10) 23. Small changes are irritating (5) 24. Feel sick at bottom of hill (3) 25. Electric chair, terribly old (7) 26. Cathy moved to the beat (5) Down 2. Number following bellows of animal (5) 3. Motorist's final destination? (3,2,3,4) 4. First class resources (7) 5. Show us a country, and have a nice day (1,1,1) 6. Roughly two in our street is decreased (7) 8. Shy about old wounds initially, then becoming flashy (5) 11. Roger and Guy sail around sociably (12) 12. In colourful Hampstead, Yuppie land (6) 13. A few queens perhaps, not many as a rule (10) 14. Sign of the french circle (3) 16. Look at a hole (3) 18. Put forward number born after I'm back (7) 19. Crippled (sic) about past (7) 20. Mad man in charge (^5) LAST WEEK'S EASY SOLUTION 21. Trim back amusement (5) hair causing 'Cl^l 'a 71 1 T £ u J. 1 'OA R S E a 1? a 1 £ A N e v'l- T a A £ rA.A £i T T £ r [5 r] ~ 1 ? S N o o K V 1 £i K 3 T A C 't o U T t o f e Hi 't ic f\ 5 L y bei e tut N t \N 1 0 1 Pf el Qj riiy e _r a 5 a ©lu D S JA 5 E! w £ '6 r. 'A g § r o N vi 1 T 1 t A r ll P 3 a 3. ll a v 0 y_ N j. £ £ fl N T c o s r o w Ik V N